By James Woite

 

Kennedy’s 11 treys not enough to prevent Bearcat win

Tyler Kennedy scored 38 points, but the Central District Lions still went down to the West Adelaide Bearcats 74-88 at Port Adelaide on Saturday.

Thus far in 2015, the Lions’ results have not been as strong as in the past couple of seasons, but on this night they made things difficult for one of the competition’s best sides.

The Lions fought hard defensively, forcing the bigger Bearcats away from their inside game. And offensively, they had Kennedy.

Kennedy only made 2-10 shots from inside the arc, but from the outside he was 11-16, despite missing his final two attempts. The majority of his makes were contested, and they kept the Lions in the game.

There was only three points the margin early in the fourth quarter when Kennedy found room to get off a potential game-tying three-pointer. The Lions had not been in front or level since the 2:22 mark of the first quarter.

Kennedy’s shot missed, but the ball was deflected out off the Bearcats, giving the Lions another chance. On the ensuing play, Lion Paul Joyce drove hard to the basket, but Bearcat Peter Crawford was credited with a clean block. At the other end, Crawford doubled the Bearcats’ lead with one of his four three-pointers, igniting an 11-0 run.

After going more than five minutes without scoring, the Lions got back on the board through another Kennedy triple, but they could never get closer than 10 points again. The Bearcats ended up winning the fourth quarter 24-14, turning a close game into a reasonably comfortable win.

Although he missed far more shots than he made, Crawford bailed the Bearcats out on a number of occasions, finishing with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists. As a team, the Bearcats made 11-23 3FG. Their outside shooting was pivotal, with big men David Sturner and Blake Truslove forcing up contested close-range shots, and combining for 10 turnovers. Sturner still managed to finish with 18 points and 16 rebounds, while Truslove had 12 rebounds and 10 points. As a team, the Bearcats outrebounded the smaller Lions 50-27, but had 19 turnovers to just 11 from the Lions.

Christopher Clausen added 16 points and 7 rebounds for the Lions. The Lions, now 3-5, play the Woodville Warriors (8-1) at Adelaide Arena on Wednesday.

The Bearcats (7-2) will also be at Adelaide Arena on Wednesday, where they will face the 3-5 Sturt Sabres. The Bearcats defeated the Sabres earlier this year.

 

Carbo, Bearcats ease past Lions

Anna Carbo marked her first start of 2015 with 20 points, as the West Adelaide Bearcats improved to 3-6, defeating the Central District Lions 83-37 at Port Adelaide on Saturday.

The Lions were without Amy Lewis and Rosalie Cutri, making their difficult task of earning a first win since 2013 even tougher. The Bearcats scored the first nine points of the game, and honed a double-figure advantage for the final 35 minutes and 35 seconds.

Despite the lopsided scoreline, Bearcat Coach Glenn Shaw would not allow his side to let up. He refused to give his key players an early night, and even called a timeout inside the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.

Carbo finished as the game’s high-scorer, making 9-24 shots, and adding 7 rebounds along the way. Trudy Holland may have only shot 2-17 for 4 points, but she had a major impact on the game with 17 rebounds and 13 assists, prior to fouling out.

Fellow Bearcats Sky Langenbrinck (13 points), Kate Shierlaw (10 points) and Megan McLeod (10 points) capped off a big numbers night for the starting five.

Hannah Dixon scored 10 points for the Lions, while Aimee Herriman had 8 points and 8 rebounds. The Lions were competitive on the boards, only falling 48-56 in that category. They also did a better job of getting to the foul-line, making 10-18 to the Bearcats’ 6-10.

The most obvious discrepancy was in assist-to-turnover ratio. The Bearcats racked up four assists for every turnover (28:7), while for each assist the Lions had more than 10 turnovers (3:31).

The Bearcats will battle the 5-3 Sabres at Adelaide Arena on Wednesday, while the 0-8 Lions will meet the 5-4 Warriors at the same venue.