By Kieren Vartuli

Sturt Sabres 105 | Norwood Flames 92

The Sturt Sabres travelled to Mars on Saturday night for a Preliminary Final matchup against the reigning champions Norwood. In what was expected to be an excellent clash started with a bang, with both sides opening up hot.

After opening up the game with quick baskets, both clubs began trading baskets and showed some excellent fundamentals on the offensive end. After this display, the reigning champions were trailing by 6-points and had to make each offensive possession count to stay in the game.  With the Flames really pushing to stay in contention for the win, they were able to fight back and eventually re-take the lead. With the lead in hand, they began to build a strong margin and play some excellent defence late. This defence helped force a shot-clock violation keeping a 5-point margin with under a minute remaining.  Closing out the quarter, the visitors were able to sink a triple that excited their fans in attendance cutting the margin to 2-points (27-25) after 1-quarter.

The Flames capitalised early in the second with some quick baskets, which slowly pushed their lead out to 10-points. With some excellent ball movement by Norwood, this was able to help do some damage on the scoreboard. This wasn’t for long as Isaac White began to heat up from the field and specifically from deep. He was able to sink back-to-back triples helping keep his side in the game before the half-time break. Despite him heating up from the field, Norwood was able to keep a lengthy lead with some offensive consistency. After forcing a crucial turnover late, Josiah Lee converted on the other end with a phenomenal up and under layup cutting the margin to 5-points. Despite the smaller margin, Norwood were able to keep their composure and close out the half in the lead with a nice assist by Holmes for an open basket as well as a successful ‘and 1’ after Matthew Lycett finished through heavy contact.

Coming out of the lockerooms after half time was an entirely different Sturt Sabres. After starting the half much like the two prior, the Flames opened up the quarter with the first basket. Despite this, Lee was able to help inspire his side to keep fighting with back-to-back strong assists cutting the margin down to 4-points. Luckily for the Flames, they were able to out-rebound their visitors on the offensive glass giving them a little bit of an edge. Jan Warbout hit a silky mid-range jumper to help keep the game in the balance and an exhilarating reverse layup by White to tie the game up at 59 apiece. With the strong defence applied by the visitors they were able to turn their trailing margin to a leading margin. With under a minute remaining, the Sabres were able to build a sturdy 8-point lead, which was eventually cut down, to 5 with Norwood scoring by the three-quarter-time siren.

Looking for a huge road victory the Sabres came out hungry in the final quarter. The Sabres started off strong with the opening basket as well as some excellent offensive awareness from Daniel Johnson who drew 3 free throws after seeing a defender charging towards him. Despite their lead, the Sabres were unable to put their opponents away as the Flames continued to fight back and stay in the contest. Daniel Johnson found himself playing on 4 fouls with over four minutes remaining although he was able to continue to help his side by hitting 2 clutch free throws in the final moments giving the Sabres a 9-point lead. As the final siren sounded, the Sabres held on for a 13-point victory allowing definite new champions next week.

White finished his huge night with 28-points (29 efficiency rating) off 75% shooting including a huge 4-6 from deep, while Johnson also added 21-points. Matthew Lycett finished with a game high 30-points and pulled down 7 boards followed by Daniel Webber who contributed 22-Points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists.

With this victory, the Sturt Sabres will face off against the Southern Tigers in the Grand Final next Saturday night at the Titanium Security Arena.