Rnd 15: Eagles hold off Rockets in thriller

By Kieren Vartuli

Forestville Eagles 83 | North Adelaide 80

The North Adelaide men were able to push the 5th seed Eagles to the absolute limit with a 3-point loss despite making a strong late push on Saturday evening.

Throughout the first quarter, both clubs were doing all they could to contest their opponents attempts. Remarkably, the Forestville Eagles were excellent at sharing the ball around as more often than not they would look for the extra pass to find the opening man. This allowed them to take the lead in the first term. Unfortunately for Forestville, Luke Mapunda was having a heater of a night himself as he was hot from the field as well as inside. Both sides played some very clean basketball and took care of the ball very well. Back to back triples by the visitors allowed North Adelaide to bring the margin to 1-point with 1:38 remaining in the opening term. North Adelaide were able to finish off the remainder of the quarter strong and attained a 2-point lead as a result (19-21).

After a hard night for Adam Schild last week, he opened up the second term with a huge block against the backboard igniting some of the crowd with cheers. The rolling of momentum helped keep Forestville scoreless for close to 3 minutes in the second term giving North Adelaide a good chance to take over. North Adelaide were doing work on both ends of the court, as Schild was able to attain his second clean block for the evening while Mapunda was hot offensively and finished with 22. Despite North Adelaide offensive work, they were unable to keep the Eagles at bay as they fought back with some excellent court vision and awareness. As the players headed for the locker rooms at the end of the half, Forestville were only shy 4-points (42-46).

Coming out of the big break, it appeared to be a different Forestville, they were able to tie up the game early and also go on a 12-6 run in the opening 4 minutes. This run handed them the lead and made North Adelaide increase the throttle. After Mapunda’s common foul, then tech foul, Forestville smartly capitalised on their awarded free throws and pushed their lead out to 11 points. Despite Mapunda heading to the locker rooms early, his surrounding team continued to step up with another 3 players in double figures by the end of the final term (Pike, Collins and Rowe).

Forestville leaders for the evening included four players in double figures and combining for 68-points. Jake Rios led the team with 21 followed closely by Adam Doyle and his 20-points. Further behind them were Kyle Howe-Tipene and Trent Fildes with 16 and 11 points.

After what was a long night from the field for North Adelaide, they were only down by a small margin of 7 early. They were able to push for the victory by moving around and creating space as well as some good transition basketball. The final few moments of play were excellent to witness as a huge triple by North Adelaide brought it to 5 with less than a minute remaining. To further the nail biting experience for everyone in attendance, Brett Collins scored a huge triple in the final seconds leaving the margin at 2-points. One successful free throw for Adam Doyle kept the Rockets down 3 with one shot remaining in the game. Unfortunately, Collins wasn’t able to convert with the buzzer beater handing the hosts the 3-point victory.

Round 16: Saturday, 9 July at 8:15pm

West Adelaide Bearcats v Forestville Eagles @ Port Adelaide

Central Districts Lions v North Adelaide Rockets @ Starplex




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