By Benito Carbone (@_DavidCarbone)

Southern Tigers 59 | Woodville Warriors 53

In a closely contested affair, the Southern Tigers overcame a fierce fight back to defeat Woodville by six points at the St Clair Recreation Centre last Saturday. The trio of Robinson, McKendrick and Cunnigan dominated for the Tigers, accumulating 37 rebounds, 10 steals and 49 of their side’s 59 points. Tavarsha Scott was again impressive for the hosts finishing the match with 15 points, 11 boards and 4 steals.

The visitors shot out of the blocks early, recording a 7-0 run to begin proceedings. Woodville managed to make up the ground with Troia (7 points, 7 boards) landing a sweet jump shot to aid the comeback. Despite this, the Warriors failed to hold Southern accountable for an abundance of errors that plagued their game for large parts of the quarter and finished the term down 15-16.

Careless play from the hosts began to cost them dearly as the arsenal of weapons at Dan Cahill’s command began to find their targets. Robinson (14 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks) made a great block on Scott as the Tigers took their defensive pressure up a notch. The game was full of turnovers but Robinson was still able to make some brilliant plays, including a skilful weaving layup to make the hosts pay for their errors. Cunnigan (16 points, 8 rebounds, 5 steals) sank a triple late in the second to sharpen the pain for Woodville who scored just 6 points in the quarter to find themselves down by 16 at half time.

McKendrick (19 points, 18 rebounds) kick-started the second half with a behind-the-back layup, while Scott made a dashing three-point play to keep the Warriors in touch. Von Einem impressively duped her opponent before landing her shot but the margin remained around the 15 point mark with the final break fast approaching.

Suddenly, Woodville began to dominate play. The home side completely controlled possession and starved the Tigers’ offense, who scored just 7 points in the term. The deficit shrunk to 10 points at three-quarter time and could have been far more if not for wayward shooting from the hosts and no contribution from their bench, who collectively had 0 points to their name.

The last quarter was an intense battle of strength with neither side managing to push the game in their favour. McKendrick completed a ridiculous backwards overhead pass falling out of bounds to Cunnigan for the foul and clutch shooting from Southern’s number 21 ensured Woodville were unable to claw back momentum. Emily Sims put up a pair of maximums to bring the margin down to 8 points with 1:19 on the clock but it was a classic case of too little too late as inaccurate shooting and the Tigers’ firepower handed them a 53-59 loss.

The win sees the Southern Tigers move to second. They now have a three-week break to bridge the gap between them and the undefeated Flames, while Woodville fall to a 4-5 record and sixth place and will hope to bounce back in a fortnights’ time against Norwood.

Round 10: Saturday, 21 May at 6.30pm

Woodville Warriors v Norwood Flames @ St Clair