The Carina Leagues Club Brisbane Lady Spartans and the Arrow Caravans & Towbars Brisbane Spartans Men have rewarded their fans in the SEABL season opener at Carina Basketball Stadium with two thrilling 3 point, over-time wins against Albury/Wodonga Lady Bandits and Canberra Gunners respectively.

 

A new look Spartans took to the floor with a full squad for the first time in three seasons, but were shaky from the start.  The Gunners were allowed to shoot the ball with ease and made the Spartans pay with deadly accuracy nailing 16 three-pointers at 50% from the three-point line and nearly 56% from the field.

That sharp shooting took the Gunners into the half time break leading by 14 points and had the Brisbane crowd, shell-shocked.  After some stern words from Spartans head coach Bruce Palmer, during the main break, the sleeping giant was awoken and poured in 64 points in the second half.

With one second left on the clock, Spartans Chris Goulding was fouled and had two free throws with the score 111 – 113.  Needing to hit both free throws to send the game into overtime Goulding was cool under pressure nailing them both and sending the game into extra period.

The Gunners scored 7 quick points in the first two and a half minutes until Drew Williamson and Tyson Demos combined to leaf the Spartans to a three point win, 126 – 123.

Spartans had firepower coming from all angles with Goulding at his electrifying best with 26 points.  Game MVP Ash Cannan added 23 points and 11 rebounds with Drew Williamson chipping in with 22 points and Greg Vanderjagt, after a slow first half
finished with a valuable 18 points and 10 rebounds.

For the Gunners, the ever reliable Zlatko Todorovski lead all scorers with 29 points, Jon Holden added 19 points and centre Glenn Baird a double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds.

The earlier game was meant to be a David v Goliath affair, between the Lady Spartans and last years easy-beats the Albury/Wodonga Lady Bandits, but someone forgot to tell the Lady Bandits. 

At the half time break the Lady Spartans held a slender 6 point lead however allowed the Lady Bandits to out score them 22 – 17 in the third and began the last quarter with just a one point lead.

At the final buzzer the scores were locked at 60 points each and an extra 5 minutes was needed to decide a winner with the Lady Spartans prevailing 69 – 66.

For the Lady Bandits, Alex Duck lead all scorers with 23 points and 7 rebounds and for the Lady Spartans, Holly Smith put the Lady Spartans on her shoulders scoring 22 points and grabbing 12 rebounds on her way to an MVP award, presented by former Lady Spartans National Championship winning head coach, Trish Cockrem.

The Lady Spartans travel to Tasmania next week and the Spartan men travel to Mt Gambier and Kilsyth before returning home on Friday 27 March at 7pm.