Men's Game Preview - Forestville v Sturt

Riley Luettgerodt

Saturday April 17, 8:15pm at Wayville

Forestville Eagles

Sturt Sabres

Minor Round Record

1st – 4 Wins and 1 Loss

3rd – 4 Wins and 1 Loss

Head Coach

Andrew Simons

Scott Butler

Top Scorer

Riley Luettgerodt – 27.6 ppg

Tom Daly – 18.4 ppg

Top Rebounder

Riley Luettgerodt – 10.4 rpg

Todd Gower – 7.6 rpg

Top Assists

Brad Gerlach – 2.8 apg

Corey Maynard – 4.0 apg

Sturt has started the season with a mainly-junior lineup, the likes of Tom Daly, Corey Maynard, Jan Warbout and John Marriot benefitting from many years together at club and state level. 19 year old Daly in particular has made a great early impression at senior level, his 18 points per game leading the Sabres and also ranking him 5th in the league. Coach Scott Butler, who has spent many years working with this group as juniors, now has the luxury of using Daly, Maynard, or Nathan Spehr at the 1 spot, all of whom are projected to have extensive careers at this level.

The Sabres also feature two of the league's stars in Darren Ng and Jacob Holmes. Darren is still one of the streakiest shooters in the land, and his five 3s were critical in a round 1 win over South. Holmes is yet to play a game this season but is likely to suit against Forestville and if he does, will pose matchup conundrums for Andy Simons.

For the first time in many years, Forestville entered this season without a key centre, after Peter Hoban moved to football. With the strength of their backcourt in recent years, this wouldn't have been so critical, but with Matt Sutton signing with Mount Gambier and Brenton Campbell returning to Cairns, suddenly Forestville didn't look so strong.

Enter Riley Luettgerodt, a 6'5" shooter from the University of Hawaii. Luettgerodt opened the season in fine form, scoring 33 and 36 in his first two games and despite returning to more modest totals since then, still leads the league in scoring with 27.6 points per game. He is truly a shooting guard but plays a power forward for the Eagles this year and will probably get the first matchup on Holmes.

Another handy addition is Nick Blair, who joined Forestville from Torrens Valley. Blair is a left handed guard who can get to the basket, and can also shoot from the perimeter as evidenced by his 5 threes against Eastern.

The Forestville-Sturt rivalry stems more from junior than senior ranks, but given the two clubs squared off in many men’s and women’s grand finals last decade, there is a great opportunity for the senior fire to be rekindled this year.




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