Men’s Norwood Flames vs Southern Tigers
The Norwood Flames (5-8) are looking to get a win after the disappointing back-to-back last round. They are going up against the Southern Tigers (2-11), who have been very inconsistent on offence this year whilst providing a reasonable defence all season. The Flames have an opportunity to use their elite offence to get a win heading into the last few games of the season.
Both teams came out with their offences rolling, the Tigers were aggressively attacking the paint scoring 4 quick points. Riley Harrap opened the game with three triples for the Flames whilst Cooper Osborne created the remaining 4 for Norwood’s opening 13-4 lead. The Tigers weren’t giving up after one quick run and bounced back. The Tigers were being creative on offence, scoring in numerous ways, but they weren’t able to slow down the Norwood offence at all. The Norwood offence was coming from inside-outside movement, using paint touches to collapse the defence and attacking advantages from the Southern closeouts. The Flames led at quarter time, 27-21.
The Tigers came out of the break firing from deep, outscoring the Flames who seemed to have lost their offensive movement in the break. The offensive push from Southern was unrelenting and with about 7 minutes left in the quarter Southern was able to obtain the lead, forcing a timeout from coach Tim Odell. Great execution from Riley Harrap and Jack Hemphill led to the lead being taken back after the timeout. Unfortunately, the Tigers hit another triple taking the lead back into their hands. The Tigers were unwilling to give up the lead and were aggressive for the remainder of the quarter on both ends. The Flames’ poise enabled them to use this aggression against the Tigers, making them over rotate and forcing them out of position. This enabled the Flames to capitalise and score easily, gaining a 5-point lead by halftime, 48-43.
Riley Harrap opened the scoring in the second half but the Tigers quickly brought the game back to just 1-point, forcing a timeout from Tim Odell. Again out of the timeout the Flames were able to execute a play and score, but a triple from the Tigers levelled the score again. Jack Stanwix was able to answer with a three of his own. This triple sparked the Norwood offence as the lead began to grow. The offensive display was enough to get the lead back into double digits, going into fourth leading 72-62.
Jack Stanwix continued the Norwood scoring from the third and started the scoring burst in the fourth from the boys. This burst completely smothered the Tigers and created an early fourth quarter lead which the Tigers couldn’t overcome. This early fourth quarter lead was enough to make the Tigers less aggressive as they lost all momentum in the game. The Flames were needing a good win and this certainly qualifies, Norwood winning, 98-78.
