Balanced Warriors Outfit Too Strong for Panthers
Woodville triumphed over a new-look South Adelaide team on Saturday night, easily dispatching the Panthers 45-68 in front of a solid crowd at Marion stadium.
South may have been sporting brand new baby-blue and pink uniforms (the club hosting it’s inaugural charity match in support of the ‘Beyond Blue’ organisation) but continued to be dogged by their same problem of poor starts defensively, giving up 23 first quarter points for the visitors.
Katherine Perkas wasted no time heating up for the Warriors, exploding for 13 of her 14 points on the night in the first period. A series of effective deep seals saw her finish under the basket and get to the line numerous times to have the visitors out to a 13-2 start that ultimately South never recovered from.
Woodville import Jessica Koch (6 points, 7 rebounds) and teammates Jasmin Howe (9 points) and Ashleigh White (6 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals) were also influential on the night, attacking from both inside and out to maintain their early lead.
Danielle Greaves (11 points) did well to stem the bleeding for the Panthers, allowing them to limp to the first break only down 14-23 after netting seven consecutive points late in the quarter to generate some offense for her side.
South continued their resurgence in the second, managing to claw the margin back to 6 after a Teresa Kinross jumper found the bottom of the net and Karen Rokicinski split a pair of free throws halfway through the second quarter.
However as it turned out that was as close as the Panthers would get. Woodville capitalising on South’s mistakes with 16 points from South Adelaide turnovers, despite throwing the ball away an alarming 25 times themselves.
Warriors coach Christian Bell made full use of his bench on the night, every player registering at least 12 minutes in a balanced team effort that allowed eleven players hit the scoreboard.
With just two rounds to go both teams will hoping to finish the season on a high note despite missing out on finals. South take on West Adelaide next week at home before a very winnable game against Centrals to finish off the season, whilst the Warriors venture to Wayville to try and upset the Eagles’ momentum heading into finals.
By Lachlan Sellar
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