Men's Elimination Final Preview - Forestville v North Adelaide
(Includes Round 3 & 12 results when the Teams last played)
Forestville v North Adelaide, Sat, July 31st, 7.30pm at Wayville
R 3: North 70 (Hambour 19, Kersten 16) def Forestville 61 (Luettgerodt 17 Blair 14)
R 12: Forestville 85 (Luettgerodt 28, Doyle 18) def North 77 (Zorich 21, Vasilijevic 13)
As with all the other finals matches these two teams enter this contest having split the results of games played between each other this season.
In the Round 3 clash away, North won the first and last quarters but drew the second and third quarter with the Eagles. Little separated the sides throughout the night with Rockets Nick Hambour and Michael Zorich both finishing with a double – double of 19 points and 11 rebounds and 10 points and 12 rebounds respectively. Only Riley Luettgerodt and Nick Blair finished in double points for Forestville.
In the return match in Round 12, Forestville reversed the result at Hillcrest with a strong last quarter when they overran the Rockets 30-12. Eagles guard Adam Doyle contributed 12 points to the score in the last term. The Rockets had established a 13 point break in the third term but couldn’t halt the run of Forestville in the last. Both teams had an even spread of scorers in that match with four players from each team in double figures.
North fronts for this final having lost its last three games to Woodville, West and Sturt. Last week against the Sabres the outside shooting of the Rockets was off target when they hit only 2 of 17 shots taken at 12%. They will need to find their range this week if they are to avoid dropping out of the finals race as they did last season against the Bearcats.
The Eagles appeared to be cruising against the Flames in their final match of the minor round when they led 50-34 at halftime. Norwood staged a stunning fight back and it was only a Luettgerodt banker that beat the buzzer with 2 seconds to play that saved the day. In contrast to North, Forestville enters this match having won its last three games against Centrals, South and Norwood.
Both coaches will know that the major scoring threat for the Eagles is Luettgerodt who leads the league with a scoring average of 28.1 points per game. For the Rockets their leading scorer is Pero Vasilijevic. He has an average of 22.2ppg from the 11 matches he has played since joining the club from overseas.
The return of Scott Arnold, who missed last week’s encounter against Norwood, would be an important inclusion to assist the Eagles’ chances of success in this match.
As with all finals this match promises to be a hotly contested affair, for the loser there is no second chance.
Last Modified on 31/07/2010 10:57
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