Central District Lions v North Adelaide Rockets, Sat, June 26th, 8.15pm at Starplex
North Adelaide 89 (Pero Vasilijevic 26, Matthew Lycett 12, Brett Collins 11) defeated
Central Districts 62 (Zane Reeves 22, Jacob Templeton 14, Lachlan Parker 9)

North at the business end of the season were not about to repeat the surprise loss that they suffered in Round 4 against the Lions. With a golden opportunity to stay above the Eagles and perhaps finish higher than 4th they thumped the Lions in the opening quarter 28–11 and repeated the dose in the second period adding another 22 points to 11. By halftime the Rockets had the luxury of freely rotating bench players into the game when they cleared out to lead 50–22. By the end of the match, North had run all twelve players who suited with the playing minutes shared around. North’s Pero Vasilijevic was just 1 rebound short of a double - double and North’s Michael Zorich was just 1 point and 1 assist short of a double – double. Zane Reeves finished as the Lions top scorer - he is having a consistent season and has been one of the Lions’ top three scorers in most of their matches.

South Adelaide Panthers v West Adelaide Bearcats, Sat, June 26th, 8.15pm at Marion
West Adelaide 90 (Brad Davidson 31, Kurtis Phillips 16, Paul Rankin 12, Chris Molitor 10) defeated South Adelaide 82 (Sammy Gazzo 37, Adam Blight 16, Steve Pilkington 11)

Little separated West and South in the first quarter with West slipping away early but South closed the margin late in the quarter to trail by only 2 points 25–23 at the first break. The teams traded baskets in the early part of the 2nd period and with less than 4 minutes until halftime, Bearcat guard Brad Davidson lit up, scoring 10 points including two 3’s in just over a minute of play to set up a match winning break 38–29. From that point of the contest West were never headed and although South stayed within range they were never able to seriously challenge for the lead. A pair of 3 pointers by Davidson in the last pushed the margin out to 15 points and although the Panthers closed to within 4 points with less than 3 minutes to play West outscored the Panthers over the closing period to claim the win and hold top spot.

Norwood Flames v Woodville Warriors, Sat, June 26th, 8.15pm at Mars
Norwood 70 (Andrew Webber 14, David Cooper 13, Corey Ottey 10) defeated
Woodville 55, (Josh Knight 11, Mark Egel 10, Chris Furness 8)

Norwood kept their winning run in tact and Woodville dropped their 1st match out of their last 4 clashes. Woodville entered the match without the services of import Brady Brink who has averaged 16.5 points per game and 9.3 rebounds. His loss will be a big blow to the team and as well as losing Brink, guard Cameron Wilson did not play. Woodville had a shocking 3rd quarter when they could only manage 6 points, those scores coming from pair of foul shots with 6:46 remaining, a solitary field goal from Matt Hunt with 1:18 left and converted foul shots from Josh Knight with 36 seconds before the break.  You won’t win too many games of basketball at this level when you can only post 1 basket from the floor during a quarter. Norwood’s David Cooper (13 points and 18 rebounds) was the only player to finish with a double – double.

Sturt Sabres v Eastern Mavericks, Sat, June 26th, 8.15pm at Pasadena
Eastern 87 (Ben Madgen 22, Brad Hill 21, Shane Breheny, Jordan Dodman 16) defeated
Sturt 82 (Jacob Holmes 17, Darren Ng, Nathan Spehr 15, Marcus Ng 11, Mark Bauer 10)

Eastern suffered a disastrous start to the match - the Sabres jumped out of the blocks leading 7–0 before Eastern’s Ben Madgen broke the drought after nearly 4 minutes of play. From then on the sides traded baskets and by the midpoint of the second period Eastern drew level, scores 32–32 after a Shane Breheny basket inside the paint. At halftime only 2 points separated the sides 42–40, the Sabres up. At three quarter time Eastern held a slender 1 point margin 63–62. With opening baskets in the last quarter to Jordan Dodman, Stuart Brehney and Brad Hill, Eastern set up a buffer which they held onto for the remainder of the game. Little separated the sides throughout the night, the last basket of the contest to Sabres Nathan Spehr reducing the final margin to just 5 points. Sturt went into the contest without the services of Jan Warbout, Corey Maynard and Tom Daly who were all overseas.

Forestville Eagles v Southern Tigers, Sat, June 19th, 8.15pm at Wayville
Forestville 92 (Riley Luettgerodt 35, Brad Sullivan 22, Scott Arnold 16, Nick Blair 8) defeated
Southern 83 (Tristian Braithwaite 26, Michael Florence 20, Shane Boal 17, Brandon Brine 14)

Forestville all but locked up a finals berth when they defeated the Tigers at home inflicting the 8th straight loss on Southern. Both teams received their major scoring output from 4 players - for the Eagles the top four contributed 81 out of their 92 points and for Southern the top four compiled 77 points out of 83. Another telling statistic was the ability of the Eagles players to get to the foul line, they converted 18 of 24 free throw shots awarded at 75% whereas Southern could only convert 6 shots out of 11 taken. Three players finished with a double – double, Luttgerodt 35 points, 12 rebounds, Arnold 16 points, 11 assists and Michael Florence 20 points and 13 rebounds.