7th June, 2009

Following a week of turmoil off the court, the WheelKings pulled it together against the Sydney Razorbacks to take a comfortable 79-64 win.

As documented elsewhere, both teams were missing key players for this local derby but all that was put aside as the starting fives came out playing strong defence, restricting easy shots and fouling to put their opponents on the line. The score see-sawed and there was nothing in it as Wenty led 19-17 at the end of the first quarter. The second term was another dour struggle with the WheelKings holding on for a 39-36 lead going into half-time.

It was towards the end of the third period that Wenty was able to stretch the lead out to 10 points and that was when a game-changing incident occurred. Razorbacks star Troy Sachs suffered a lacerated finger which looked certain to require stitches. It was bad enough that Sachs couldn't risk re-entering the game and worsening the injury. Without their leading scorer and rebounder, Sydney struggled to keep in touch with the confident WheelKings. The lead blew out to 20 midway through the final quarter as Wenty cruised in for the win.

Coach Hewson was pleased with his team's maturity, "we overcame the mental battle of setting aside the challenges we had through the week. Even though understrength, the guys didn't let it bother them and played consistently the whole game."

The coach was particularly lavish in his praise for last-minute sign-up Chris Nicholls who came in as a 1.0 pointer to replace injured guard Jeremy Doyle, "a big pat on the back goes to Chris for coming out of retirement and playing the entire 48 minutes when he hasn't been in training at all. It was a big ask but he executed the game plan and did everything expected of him." Former Australian Glider Jenny Nicholls (wife of Chris) also came out of retirement to bolster team numbers in a time of need.

There were plenty of other solid contributors for the WheelKings as well. Koen Jansens led all scorers with 30 points (61% accuracy) and he pulled in 13 rebounds. Jon Pollock had a beautiful point guard game with 14 assists to go with his 22 points and 6 rebounds. Jeremy Van Asperen played his first game of the season and gathered a tidy 11 points and 5 boards. Jon Simon had a much better game than his stats would indicate but he still contributed 6 points and 4 rebounds. Kylie Gauci got more involved in the offence this game and hit 8 points and 2 assists.

The Razorbacks were led by Troy Sachs who had 22 points and 17 rebounds in just over 30 minutes. He was supported by Grant Mizens with 12 points and 6 rebounds, Sarah Stewart with 11 and 7, and Nick Taylor with 10 and 10 plus 5 assists.

Wenty head north in a fortnight's time where they'll play a double-header against Brisbane Spinning Bullets. The Bullets have a new British import who reportedly is very large and pretty good too. It will be interesting to see if he can turn around the fortunes of the struggling Brisbane team of recent seasons.

Photos of today's game are courtesy of Reverend William A. Stewart. Uncropped versions of the pics in the montage and many other photos can be viewed at http://www.pbase.com/wrs864/razorbacks_vs_wheelkings_7th_june_2009

There is also a selection from last week's game versus the Hawks at http://www.pbase.com/wrs864/wheelkings_vs_roller_hawks__30th_may_2009