North Adelaide Rockets v South Adelaide, Sun, June 27th, 3.00pm at Hillcrest
North Adelaide 74 (Pero Vasilijevic 28, Rhys Elliott 10, Nick Hambour 9) defeated
South Adelaide 72 (Sammy Gazzo 24, Lachlan Prest 14, Steve Pilkington 10)

In a game of contrasting quarters, North Adelaide prevailed on the last shot of the night, the victory earned with a buzzer beater by Matthew Lycett with 1 second remaining in front of a vocal crowd. In this match North won the first quarter 23-13, South won the second 23-15, North won the third 21-16 and South won the last 20-15 in a fluctuating and exciting contest. The winning shot was taken after a shot from North’s Michael Zorich missed, Lycett rebounded the ball and his conversion won the game. All the more remarkable was that Lycett was substituted out of the game with 7:11 remaining and was then put back in with only 1:14 left scoring the winning basket with his only conversion of the game.  Prior to that a Cameron Bruce 3 pointer with his only score of the night had levelled the scores at 72 all with 46 seconds left. The ‘hot hands’ of Sammy Gazzo fired South back into the contest - he hit three consecutive 3s between the 3:12 mark and the 2:17 mark of the last quarter when South had fallen behind 60-68.

Southern Tigers v Central Districts Lions, Sun, June 27th, 3.00pm at Morphett Vale
Southern 88 (Tristian Braithwaite 30, Shane Boal 16, Joel Goodenough 15, Michael Florence 10) defeated Central Districts 87 (Zane Reeves 30, Wade Pidock 24, Gary Birmingham 11)

As expected, the game went down to the wire with Southern pulling off the win courtesy of a Joel Goodenough basket with 24 seconds remaining. Prior to that point the Lions had the advantage after Gary Birmingham scored a 3 pointer with 37 seconds remaining, the Lions up 87-86. Goodenough’s conversion gave the Lions plenty of time to hit the winning shot and with 4 seconds to play Birmingham launched another 3 pointer to win the game. He failed to connect but he did however grab the rebound but time ran out before he could hit the winning shot. Southern would have been disappointed that they let a match winning lead slip -  they were in front by as much as 18 points 3 minutes from the halftime break but a poor third quarter when they were outscored 24-11 let the Lions back into the game.

West Adelaide Bearcats v Norwood Flames, Sun, June 27th, 3.00pm at Port Adelaide
West Adelaide 80 (Chris Molitor, Anthony Spadavecchia 17, Josh Bond 16) defeated Norwood 57 (Ben Howell 15, Corey Ottey 11, Daniel Webber 9)

West Adelaide took until the midpoint of the first quarter before they hit the lead after a 3 pointer by Chris Molitor. As the game progressed, the Bearcats further extended the margin - towards the end of the first period after they added another 10 points without reply from the Flames they led 20-10. In the second, after a 3 pointer from Anthony Spadavecchia they doubled that lead to 20 points, 36-14 and by the end of the third quarter the margin had blown out to 30 points 67-37. West’s win moves them 1 game clear at the top of the table with Norwood holding down second position after their loss. Norwood had a number of players down on form from this match and they will need to re-group before next week’s game if they are to challenge for top spot over the coming weeks.

Woodville Warriors v Sturt Sabres, Sun, June 27th, 3.00pm at St Clair
Sturt 79 (Darren Ng 29, Jacob Holmes 19, Nathan Spehr 7) defeated
Woodville 62 (Mark Egel 19, Matt Hunt 11, Adam Miller 9)

Sabres guard Darren Ng hit a season high score on his way to helping Sturt overcome a determined Woodville team who were without Brady Brink, Ben McKay and Cameron Wilson. The Sturt team took twenty six 3 point shots during the game with Ng connecting on 7, more than double the entire Woodville team. The Warriors finished with 3 from 10 three point shots taken. Although the Sabres were missing three of their players overseas, the scoring combination of Ng and Jacob Holmes, who finished with a double – double of 19 points and 16 rebounds, proved too difficult for the Warriors to contain. After the weekend’s games Sturt now sits 3rd with Woodville dropping to 7th place.

Eastern Mavericks v Forestville Eagles, Sun, June 27th, 3.00pm at Mount Barker
Forestville 90 (Riley Luettgerodt 41, Scott Arnold 14, Brad Sullivan 8) defeated
Eastern 75 (Brad Hill 19, Ben Madgen 17, Jordan Dodman 12 Stuart Breheny 10)

With so much at stake for both sides, Eastern fired up early and after 5 minutes of play held a 19 – 8 advantage after a Jordan Dodman basket. The Mavericks’ undoing was the second quarter when they could only connect on four baskets before halftime. In the same period the Eagles set up the win with a 27 point quarter with American Import Riley Luettgerodt hammering home 11 points on his way to a game high 41 points. Both teams scored 23 points in the third and little separated the sides in the last. The Eagles controlled the game after the second quarter fadeout by the Mavericks who never seriously looked like claiming victory. Forestville’s win has almost certainly cemented their place in the top 5 for the rest of the season. Eagle’s Scott Arnold worked tirelessly finishing with 14 points and 13 rebounds to be the next best behind Riley Luettgerodt.