ABL round 1
March 16, 2009Our first game of the season was on Saturday night against the South Adelaide Panthers (A reminder that I’m playing for the Sturt Sabres in the Central ABL competition in Adelaide). With pretty much half of our team being new players with myself included it was interesting to see how we would put it all together. The team had been doing a lot of preseason running and fitness so this was the first time we all hit the court together in a game. We are a relatively young side, with four Sturt under 20’s joining the group (Claybrin McMath, Corey Maynard, Jan Warbout, and Tom Daly). These four were a part of the SA 20’s state team and will be exciting to watch.
You can read about the ABL and all of the ins and outs of each team and Boti’s write up.
Now to the game.
We started out quite strongly – starters were Corey, Myself, Mark Bauer, Todd Gower and Claybrin – extending our full court defensive pressure and causing some trouble for the South guards. Claybrin was really strong inside and finished off well, ending up with 20 points for the game. We gradually pulled out the lead to 54-39 at the half, with some good shooting and nice inside play. Size wise, we were fairly similar to South, I just think we had a few more weapons than them and were able to exploit that. South are pretty physical, but we were able to overcome that without too many concerns.
It was a great team effort. Defensively we were strong and cruised to the win 88-69. I thought the young kids were good and controlled the game well. I haven’t played with many juniors that have had that kind of impact immediately for a while. They will only get better as the season goes on. The ‘veteran’ players on the team – Gower, Baz, Bowley, Vaughno – all played solid minutes to keep the scoreboard ticking over and we were able to give the younger guys a run at the end. I think I ended up with 19pts.
Photos of the game can be found at Damrob.
Next week we play North Adelaide at Pasadena on Saturday. Our first home game, so get out and support us if you can!
Hey Darren!
Great to hear that you and the others had a good game last week and that you had fun! I noticed from Damrob photos that Marcus is still sitting out… when will he be game ready???
Singapore misses all of the 08/09 team and is excitedly waiting to hear what will happen with the ASEAN League later this year. Greatr to see you in the double blues colours!!!
That’s great! How’s the game this week? I’ve no idea when’s your next game but all the best for it