Norwood Flames v North Adelaide Rockets, Sat, July 3rd, 8.15pm at Mars
North Adelaide 73 (Pero Vasilijevic 24, Leif Burdon 13, Michael Zorich 12) defeated
Norwood 66 (Todd Matthews, Sam Grantham, Andrew Webber 14, David Cooper 9)

North locked in an all important finals berth and in the process took the head to head result against the Flames by a solitary point. The last time the sides met in Round 6 Norwood were successful by 6 points 71-65. Norwood welcomed back Dan Thompson from injury for his first match of the season. At the end of the first quarter the Flames fell behind by 7 points 17-10. In the second with multiple baskets to Todd Matthews and Sam Grantham, Norwood reclaimed the lead and at halftime they were up 31-29. In the third, for the majority of time only a basket separated the sides with 7 lead changes during the quarter to keep the crowd entertained. North eventually took the lead after 3 point baskets to Rhys Elliott, Leif Burdon and Brett Collins all in the last 4 minutes of play. In the last period North set up a mini break and led 61-53 after a basket to Pero Vasilijevic who finished the game high scorer with 24 points. Norwood then stormed back into the match after Todd Matthews, Andrew Webber and David Cooper scored consecutive baskets – Norwood down by only 1 point 61-60. Tom Rowe, Michael Zorich, Elliott, Vasilijevic and Rowe with his final basket of the night all scored in quick succession to push the lead out to 10 points 70-60. Late 3 pointers to Keith Krause and Webber only reduced the margin with North grabbing its third win in a row.

Woodville Warriors v West Adelaide Bearcats, Sat, July 3rd, 8.15pm at St Clair
West Adelaide 76 (Kurtis Phillips 19, Anthony Spadavecchia 18, Blake Truslove 14) defeated Woodville 63 (Josh Knight 20, Ben McKay 12, Cameron Wilson 11)

West Adelaide secured its 8th win in succession when it defeated the Warriors with good second and third quarters when it outscored the host 20-12 in the second and 22-13 in the third to set up the win. For most of the first half, Woodville held the ascendancy with Josh Knight scoring 14 of his 20 points in the first half. By the end of the third term, West had established a break of 14 points and looked certain to record victory when it led 63-49.
In the last quarter both teams struggled offensively with the Warriors only hitting three shots from the floor, all 3 pointers, one to Cameron Wilson and two to Ben McKay. During the game West looked after possession better than Woodville, recording only 11 turnovers for the match as opposed to a high 27 for the Warriors. Bearcat guard Anthony Spadavecchia finished with a rare double – double of 18 points and 10 assists to record a season high number of assists for him and the most assists for the round. With only 3 matches to the finals the victory has almost assured the Bearcats will finish minor premiers unless they have a huge slump in form over the remaining matches. Woodville needs to find one win out of its last 3 matches to equal the six wins in recorded in season 2009.

Sturt Sabres v Forestville Eagles, Sat, July 3rd, 8.15pm at Pasadena          
Sturt 93 (Jacob Holmes 30, Corey Maynard 14, Tom Daly 12) defeated
Forestville 81 (Riley Luettgerodt 39, Brad Haydon 14, Scott Arnold 10)

In a game of fluctuating fortunes Sturt started on fire to lead 34 -17 at the end of the first quarter with Jacob Holmes and Mark Bauer doing the bulk of the scoring. In the second the Eagles reversed the trend of the first quarter to outscore the Sabres 33-14 to lead by 2 points at halftime 50-48. In the second Riley Luettgerodt hit 14 of his 39 points for the game. He was well supported by Brad Haydon who hit 3 three pointers. Sturt regained the lead in the third, Todd Gower and Holmes doing the bulk of the scoring for the Sabres who established a 9 point buffer by the end of the period. In the last, Sturt edged away to lead by 12 points, 85-73 with 4:10 left in the contest after three baskets to Corey Maynard in succession. The Eagles were never able to seriously threaten after the Maynard baskets. The win by the Sabres leaves them locked with Norwood and North Adelaide on 11 wins. The Eagles hold onto 5th place with the loss, 2 games clear of Eastern with 3 to play.

Central Districts Lions v Eastern Mavericks, Sat, July 3rd, 8.15pm at Starplex
Eastern 111 (Ben Madgen 34, Brad Hill 21, Jordan Dodman 17) defeated
Central Districts 95 (Zane Reeves 21, Lachlan Parker 18, Gary Birmingham 16)

Eastern entered the match without the services of the ever reliable Shane Breheny who has not missed a match in four seasons and also Ben Dearman was unable to play due to injury. Centre Jordan Dodman saw extra minutes to cover the absence of Breheny. Dodman was matched against Lions import Wade Pidock who has been a consistent scorer for Centrals. On the night, Dodman won the duel with Pidock having little impact in the second half, only scoring 2 points after halftime. The Lions jumped Eastern early holding the lead for most of the first quarter until a score by Will Smith with 2:20 remaining in the period edged the Mavs clear 21-19. From that point Eastern were never headed and for most of the remainder of the game held a 10-15 point buffer which the Lions never looked capable of overcoming. Eastern finished with their highest score of the season surpassing the 110 points they scored against the Lions in Round 6. For Centrals, Zane Reeves finished with a double – double of 21 points and 10 rebounds to be their most consistent player.

South Adelaide Panthers v Southern Tigers, Sat, July 3rd, 8.15pm at Marion
South Adelaide 102 (Sammy Gazzo 29, Adam Blight 24, Steve Pilkington 18) defeated Southern 93 (Tristan Braithwaite 32, Brandon Brine 16, Michael Florence 15, Luke Foran 14)

South Adelaide won the local derby in an absolute thriller in double overtime. With South holding a 4 point lead with 55 seconds of regulation left, Southern's Tristan Braithwaite converted, reducing the margin to 2 points 81-79. He then scored again with 27 seconds remaining to level the scores. In the frantic last seconds both sides were unable to hit the winning basket, although Braithwaite tried on the buzzer. The game went into the first period of overtime. In that period both sides scored 8 points with Tigers Luke Foran converting a pair of foul shots with 7 seconds left to tie the scores again. A shot from South's Cameron Bruce on the buzzer to steal the victory missed. In the 2nd period of overtime Bruce hit two 3 pointers at 2:56 remaining and 2:18 to edge out a 5 point margin 96-91. South's Adam Blight then scored his 24th point of the night with less than 2 minutes to play, that basket sealed the result. Foul shots from Brian Finniss and Sammy Gazzo in the last minute of play only extended the margin. The Tigers have now had two heart stoppers in the last two games, winning one and losing the other.