Rnd 8: Tigers Men still perfect after blowout victory
By Mark Halliday
West Adelaide Bearcats 55 | Southern Tigers 92
Eight games, eight wins. That's the story so far for a Southern Tigers team that looks almost unbeatable through the early part of the season and Saturday night was no exception as they cruised to a 92-55 victory over the West Adelaide Bearcats at Port Adelaide.
The Tigers looked set to put the game away early after a 23-9 opening quarter. Their defence important as they denied the Bearcats good looks at the basket.
The Bearcats however turned the game around by locking down on defence and picking up their offence to outscore the Tigers 20-7 through the first 8 minutes of the second to only trail by 1 with 1:54 left in the half. Tristan Braithwaite and Lucas Valk both connected on triples before Paul Rankin's shot got the Bearcats as close as they'd ever been since the start.
Southern as they have shown before found an extra gear and the comeback was shut down, the momentum shifted and the Tigers regained control of the game as they pulled away with a huge lead.
The Tigers once again went on a run out of half time, except this time there would be no comeback as a 5 point half time lead blew out to a 24 point gap with one quarter to play.
Southern's defence resulted in a number of turnovers for the Bearcats, even suffering an 8 second backcourt violation at one stage. The Tigers played effortlessly as a team as they found the open man or a cutting team-mate to increase the lead.
Mitch Creek and Alex Starling led the way as they relentlessly attacked the basket. Creek nailed a pair of triples to close out the third as the Tigers continued to pull away from their opponents in the fourth and on to another victory.
Creek led all scorers with 26 with Starling finishing with 21 for the Tigers. Todd Davies and Codey Ellison both added 11 points in the win.
Demetrius Perkins was the only double digit scorer for West Adelaide with 18, Akol Deng added 9. Braithwaite and Valk scored 7 each as the Bearcats prepare for another tough match against the visiting Norwood Flames this Saturday.
Round 9: Saturday, 7 May at 8.15pm
Southern Tigers v Woodville Warriors @ St Clair
West Adelaide v Norwood Flames @ Port Adelaide
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