In the men’s league the win-less Mavericks took on top of the table West Adelaide. After a solid start against the top ranked Bearcats the Mavericks men eventually succumbed to the huge presence of Blake Truslove and 36er Daniel Johnson.

With 9 first quarter lead changes and the game tied 5 times, Eastern’s Curtis Scipio and Shane Breheny made the most of Johnsons late arrival to the game, knocking down 9 and 7 points.
The Bearcats had more scoring opportunities thanks to 5 offensive rebounds to the Mavs none. Bearcats Truslove and Joshua knight combined for 13 points, most of them coming off strong moves in the key while Macericks Scipio, Breheny and Daniel Lean each had one from down town. The Mavs shot 60 per cent for the term, including 3 from 4 beyond the arc to stay within a point of West Adelaide at the first break, despite taking fewer shots.

Bearcats point guard Tristan Braithwaite had a big second quarter as he made his way to 10 points, and with 7 other scoring contributors they began to put their foot down and outscored Eastern by 12 points. Neither Scipio or Shane Breheny could get a shot to fall in the second and it was left to Stuart Breheny and Haydn Barns to score two thirds of the teams points.

Johnson arrived in the second term and went straight onto the court, his added 2.12 metre frame bolstered the Bearcat’s line-up and by the end of the half they had doubled Easterns rebound count and had made it to the line for 18 free throw attempts to the Mavericks 2 building a 13 point lead.

Anthony Spadavecchia hit 8 free throws in the third quarter to help his team to a 28 point buffer going into the last. The Bearcats had their highest scoring quarter to the Mavericks lowest. Scipio and Truslove led their respective teams with 9 points each.

With 5 minutes to play both teams brought on bench players for experience, Tom Kubank for the Bearcats received plenty of the ball and drilled 3 late baskets from beyond the arc on his way to 13 points. Stuart Breheny managed a double-double with 11 rebounds while Johnson and Truslove achieved the same for their team. Scipio led the Mavs for assists with 6 and Braithwaite added 8 for the Bearcats in the Mavericks 12th straight loss of the season.

“I think we’ve had a snowball effect in a negative way. I think if we’d had a win early on it would have changed mentalities and all that, things go better when you think you’re there”. Said coach Will Smith of the Mavericks season.

“We do change things up at training, every week it’s a little reinventing of the wheel, keeping the guys engaged and looking for that first win”.

Eastern Mavericks 67 (Scipio 20, St Breheny 12, Lean 9) defeated by West Adelaide Bearcats 105 (Truslove 19, Johnson 16, Paul Rankin 14, Braithwaite 13, Kubank 13)

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By Lachlan Eggars