By Kieren Vartuli
Woodville Warriors 81 | South Adelaide 59

Saturday night, the Woodville Warriors hosted the South Adelaide Panthers in the second Woodville clash for the evening. Woodville were coming into this matchup in 3^rd position (11-4) while the struggling Panthers were 8^th (3-12).

After a slow start for both sides, the Panthers were first to open up a score tally for the evening with 2 made free throughs. After having the lead for a short while, the Panthers were unable to hold it for the entire quarter as the Warriors took over. When the first quarter siren sounded, the Warriors lead by 4-points.

Woodville were getting it done on both ends of the floor as they forced 16 turnovers by the end of the fixture. Despite either team scoring on the break, Woodville were able to add another 13-points to the board to the Panthers 5. Throughout the second term, and much of the game the Warriors were working hard inside. Unfortunately for the Panthers, this was brutal as they allowed 46-points in the paint showing the lack of interior defence. Despite the lack of consistent defence, the Warriors were unable to put them away as after a late triple by Shane Boal (16-points) the Warrior lead was cut to only 3 with 1:30 remaining in the half. Heading to the locker room Woodville were able to increase it to 5-points.

After 5 minutes of the third term, the Panthers were still eying a comeback and they were only down 7-points. Luke Stanbridge, who finished with a double-double (23 points, 11 rebounds) helped provide a huge spark for the Warriors with a fantastic hustle play which warmed up the crowd on a cold evening. With the majority of the third term gone, as well as Warrior sharpshooter Darren Ng who left the game early with what appeared to be a leg injury, the Panthers were still down double digits with little time remaining. With Ng missing for some of the 2^nd half, it was business as usual for Nelson Kirksey who shot 57% from the field totalling 30-points. He also pulled down 12 rebounds to go with his huge night from the field.

A promising game for the Panthers turned into a long evening as they were down 17 by the 3^rd quarter siren. Once again Luke Stanbridge showed some fantastic basketball by stealing the ball and giving the crowd a huge dunk in transition. One play sadly summed up the Panthers evening and this was Steve Pilkington’s failed dunk attempt as he was rejected by the rim.

The final siren blew and the hosts were going home with a 22-point victory. The win closed the gap on 2^nd place Norwood Flames to 2-points and 0.51%. The race between these two clubs appears to be going down to the wire in the tail end of the season. This loss was South Adelaide’s 13^th of the season and they are now 4-points behind the 7^th place North Adelaide Rockets.

Round 17: Saturday, 16 July at 8.15pm
South Adelaide v Central Districts @ Marion
Please note: Woodville & Forestville played on Sunday, 10 July (Forestville def Woodville 85-82)