Bearcats Send Warning to Men's Teams
The West Adelaide Bearcats made a statement to the other teams with a massive 85-61 thrashing of reigning premiers Forestville on Saturday night. It was the game of the round and it didn’t disappoint the vocal fans that turned out to see two of the teams expected to finish high on the ladder this season.
The first quarter was a tight contest as the teams were settling into the new season and getting used to new teammates – 36ers Daniel Johnson and Jason Cadee would have spent little time with their West teammates. Johnson started the scoring but also picked up a couple of early fouls and when West picked up a foul followed by a technical near the end of the first quarter it gave Forestville a 5 point break. The momentum didn’t last as West scored the next 3 points, Forestville taking a 2 point lead into quarter time.
Emotions were high early in the second quarter and an unsportsmanlike foul by Forestville gave West the lead and momentum. Forestville seemed unsettled by West’s defensive pressure, only able to manage 6 points for the quarter, whilst Johnson and Blake Truslove continued to score inside. At half time the margin was already a sizeable 14 (43-29).
The third quarter was back to the tight first quarter contest until Johnson put the exclamation mark on the West victory with a big reverse dunk off a baseline drive that brought the crowd to life. He finished with 11 points for the quarter – a 3 pointer after his dunk emphasising the difficulty he poses to opposition defences at this level. Neil Mottram didn’t hit the court after half time, making the match up on Johnson even more difficult for the visitors.
A 16 point deficit for Forestville at the beginning of the final quarter was always going to be tough to overcome and when they didn’t score for the first few minutes the game was gone. The lead eventually ballooned out to the final 24 point margin, 85 - 61, something Paul Bell could have only dreamt of his Bearcats producing prior to the game.
The Bearcats won the boards 49 - 35 and were able to take advantage of Forestville’s poor shooting percentage of 29%.
West Adelaide Bearcats 85 (Daniel Johnson 32, Josh Knight 12, Tristan Braithwaite 10)
Forestville Eagles 61 (Trent Fildes 14, Brad Haydon 13, Jake Rios 13)
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