The Eastern men were handed their eighth straight loss when they went down to the Southern Tigers on Saturday. They were defeated by 25 points as their key players outside of Curtis Scipio struggled to put points on the board.

Meanwhile it was Southern trio Codey Ellison, Todd Davies and Michael Florance who kept the score ticking on their end. Scipio opened the scoring for the Mavs, getting a second basket soon after, but when Samuel McDaniel made a three pointer the Tigers had the lead. And they pressed. Ellison added 4 points and Davies a three before Eastern coach Will Smith tried to settle with a timeout.

Out of the huddle they pulled back with points to versatile Mavs player Shane Breheny and a three pointer to Scipio. Southern’s Samuel Johns was left wide open and made them pay with a long three from the left sideline, Shane Breheny responded with one of his own outside the arc and his brother Stuart Breheny put up two in a row, but missed the extra free throw on the and-1 play. Now it was the Tigers turn to slow the game with a timeout, yet Scipio was the first to score when play restarted, his second three pointer of the night bringing the Mavs to within 3 points. The Tigers were spreading the burden well with 7 score contributors to Eastern’s 3, and 3 baskets in the last minute saw them holding a 10 point margin at the first break.

The second term was a close affair, points were hard to come by but the Tigers again settled on top with 17 points to 13. They continued spreading their scoring across a range of players, with all but 2 who had seen court time adding some points. It was Haydn Barns and Daniel Lean for the Mavericks as import guard Scipio and Shane Breheny quietened down.

Eastern shot out quickly in the third, outscoring their opponents for the first quarter they also beat them in scoring contributors with 6 players helping them claw back the Tigers lead. Eastern closed to 47-51 on a basket from Nicholas Sbroiavacca but felt it slipping away when Johns and Davies added late points for Southern. The Tigers went for the kill in the last quarter, Davies scored 2 more from the three point line and Ellison came through with 12 last quarter points to end as the game high scorer with 23. Scipio mustered another 4 points to finish with 17, Eastern’s only double figure scorer.

In the last minutes, with the result decided, both teams ran their bench players, Eastern’s Ben McLaughlin made the most of his time with 4 points and Sbroiavacca made what many thought was a bloody good block on a fast break drive of Craig Catford, going up with his layup and not allowing the ball to even leave his hands. The final score, Eastern Mavericks 61 (Scipio 17, Sh Breheny 9, St Breheny 8) defeated by the Southern Tigers 86 (Ellison 23, Davies 16, Florance 12)

This weekend the Mavericks will travel to Hillcrest to take on the North Adelaide Rockets. Both women’s teams sit on 6 wins 2 losses along with the Eagles and Sturt, separated only by percentage. The game begins at 6:30pm, with the men to follow at 8:15.

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Article and Photo by Lachlan Eggers