Too tall. Too strong. Too good.

That was the theme of Sturt’s interior dominance early over South Adelaide’s undersized frontcourt, who struggled to contain the three-pronged attack of the Bowley sisters as well as Molly Lewis down low.

Sturt raced to a 10-2 lead early, forcing South Adelaide into turnovers and rushed shots through tough defence and strong rebounding, allowing Amy Shaw to run the lanes and capitalize with a couple of fast break baskets in quick succession early in the piece.  

The Panthers stayed in touch through some accurate shooting from deep, with Lauren Gibbons providing the offensive spark for the visitors off the bench, putting 8 of her team-high 13 points through the net in the first term to help South close the gap to 21-18 at the first break.

It didn’t take long for the Bowley sisters to start showing their class, with Hannah (14pts, 6reb) combining with sister Brigid and the rest of the Sturt frontcourt to keep the scoreboard ticking over in a physical second term, the umpires choosing to put away their whistles and let the two teams fight it out under the basket, much to the Sabres advantage.

A wild circus shot by Kayla Mathews in the dying seconds of the half provided Sturt with a comfortable 19 point buffer at the main break.

The second half saw the Panthers make marginal headway into Sturt’s lead when Teresa Kinross hit an early three, who looked to be South’s only real major offensive threat alongside Gibbons with 11pts, but struggled at 4/17 from the field under the intense defensive scrutiny dished out by the Sabres.

Hajnal Nagy (12pts 12reb) fought well down low for the Panthers as the lone inside presence for the Panthers, but was fighting an uphill battle against five easily interchangeable Sturt bigs.

With a 67-43 lead at the final change, coach Marcus Wong threw the keys to his bench to finish off the Panthers, who managed to extend the lead even further despite some physical defence from South’s backcourt. Mathews controlled the tempo well for the Sabres, and Sylvia Garula was impressive in limited minutes with a couple of late baskets that included a slashing drive right on the siren to leave the final score at 82-56.

Sturt Sabres 82 (Hannah Bowley 14, Amy Shaw 12, Brigid Bowley 8)
South Adelaide Panthers 56 (Lauren Gibbons 13, Hajnal Nagy 12, Teresa Kinross 11)

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By Lachlan Sellar