March 10, 2013

Photo:  Dylan De Santis  helped Lightning lift their game in a close win v Palmerston Saturday night. Shown here v Ansett.

Challenge Season

Darwin Airport Resort League Results from Saturday 9 March 2013

League Men – Eagles v Tracy Village Jets

Bragging rights at the top of the Men’s League ladder just swung in favour of the Tracy Village Jets after they handed the Eagles their first loss of the season. The Bombers remain the only undefeated men’s team in the competition after a 75-66 win over the Birds. An opening blast from the Bombers gave them a 17-8 lead after one quarter and it was all uphill for the Eagles after that. The closest the Birds got was 5 points midway through the third quarter. Jet Alex Weetra continued his fine shooting form, especially from outside the arc (4/6), to lead the Bombers with 19 points, followed by Phil Collins (15), Michael MacLean (14) and Jake Geer (11). The Jets have put together two consecutive winning games despite not having the services of their leading scorer, Travis Ellis (25ppg). The Eagles were down a shooter as well, missing Buster Perkins (23.3ppg) who is on holidays. Shonsdale Robinson put up 29 points with Jesse Williams-Hook 14 and Chris Stewart 12 lending a hand. Stewart also grabbed 22 rebounds (13 of them on offense). For the record the Jets hit 9/22 three pointers to the Eagles 0/11.

Razzle v Ansett

The Hunt brothers teamed up for a combined 66 points to lead Ansett to a huge 118-56 win against Razzle. The win keeps them just a game out of first place as they have a game in hand. Matt Hunt’s statistics read as such: 35pts, 12rebs, 12 assists & 4 steals. Tom’s stats were similar with 31pts, 9rebs, 9 assists & 3 steals. Razzle had their hands full not only with these two, but had to contend with 20pts from Ross Vasic, 17 from Daniel Florance and 10 from Chris Barrett. Robert Oliver from Razzle led all scorers with 37 points together with 18 boards and Ben Cowcher added 12. The undermanned Razzle fell behind quickly during a Blue’s run of 23-12 in the first quarter and trailed 50-30 at the major break. It was more of the same in the second half. Ansett picked up 37 points from 32 Razzle turnovers.

Palmerston v Lightning

Lightning squeaked past Palmerston 62-58 for their second win in as many days. The victory moved them from almost last place into the four after 5 rounds. Four players hit double figures with Tony Halikos leading the way with 18, Cameron Bailey & Thomas Godwin 12 each and 10 to Dylan De Santis. In a very tense finish Lightning held on for the win. With 4:39 remaining Adrien Laborde put Palmerston up by one point at 56-55, but that was their last gasp as Dylan De Santis nailed his second trey in a row for a 58-56 Lightning lead. His basket was followed by two baskets from Halikos who sealed the win. Laborde topped all scorers with a season high 20 with Jesse Bell chipping in with 15pts and 17 boards. Lightning hit 3 of 4 from the charity stripe whereas Palmerston could only manage 13 of 30.

Ladder:                               Eagles 4-1, Tracy Village Jets 4-0, Ansett 3-1, Lightning 2-2, Razzle 1-4, Uni Rebels 1-3, & Palmerston 0-4

Next Week:                       Lightning v Tracy Village Jets 6:15pm, Palmerston v Ansett 7:45pm & Eagles v Uni Rebels 9:15pm. Bye: Razzle