By Kieren Vartuli

North Adelaide 82 | Eastern Mavericks 65

The 7^th seed Rockets (5-11) hosted the last place Eastern Mavericks for their round 17 fixtures at a Beyond Blue Charity match held at Hillcrest Basketball Stadium on Saturday night.

Right from the opening tip, the Hillcrest Arena was set to have a spectacular game for the fundraiser round. Luke Pike was able to get the rockets going after nailing back-to-back triples, which answered the opening Mavericks basket. Both sides were playing very physical on the floor and both finished with 19 team fouls apiece. It wasn’t all North Adelaide in the first term despite their nice gameplay though. The Eastern Mavericks gave the crowd a little chuckle after Darcy Aistrope inbounded the ball off Adam Schilds’ back for the easy 2. With some great court vision displayed by both sides, the visitors were only up 1-point at the first break.

It was the 2^nd quarter where the Rockets fired up and put the Mavericks into a difficult place. The honing of their passing was demonstrated on the floor with the Rockets passing it around well and looking for an open man. Coming off the bench, Cody Rhorer contributed to the team well, which included a nice assist to Brad Jones for the quick basket. Once again, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Mavericks as they were doing quite average on the offensive glass. Despite puling down 7 successfully, they were putting in work for them. Luke Mapunda who had a hard day from the field but made up for it at the line finished with a double-double (19 points, 11 rebounds). He gave the crowd a nice sight after going coast-to-coast and losing men on the way with some slick handles. As the half time siren blew, the Mavericks were down by just 8-points.

Darcy Aistrope, who was having a field day, opened up the Mavericks third term with a steal and conversion. Aistrope finished with a game high 25-points (45% FG and 50% 3-pt). Once again, the physicality was at a high and this definitely showed when contesting shots. Both sides appeared to struggle from the field due to this as the Mavericks led their hosts 39-38 in FG percentage by the end of the fixture. Despite their percentage struggles, the Rockets accelerated throughout this term and finished the quarter up 21-points (66-45).

The final term was one the Mavericks may like to remember as they outscored the Rockets 20-16. Their blunders continued however as the Rockets forced a number of turnovers including a shot clock violation. Aistrope was a bright spark in what was a dull game for the Mavericks as he nailed back-to-back triples to further open his box score and cut the margin. Defensively, it was a quiet night for the hosts in the blocks category only tallying Luke Mapunda’s lone rejection.

As the final siren blew, the Rockets won their second straight and look to continue their good form for the final couple rounds.

Round 18:

Saturday, 23 July at 8:15pm – Sturt Sabres v North Adelaide Rockets @ Pasadena

Sunday, 24 July at 3:15pm – Eastern Mavericks v South Adelaide Panthers @ Adelaide Hills