George leads way to get Cannons firing again

FAR North basketballer Deba George is leading his Darwin Basketball Men’s League Championship club Essington out of a slump.

The Cannons were thumped 121-57 by Challenge winners Uni Rebels in Round 6, leaving them with a 2-4 record.

But with an influx of star imports since then, the Top End’s newest team have been almost unbeatable, winning 13 of their past 14 games.

Their latest victory was a 112-109 thriller over the Rebels on Thursday night.

Former Cairns Taipans star George (40 points), Tobiasz Hose (27), Travis Ellis (20) and Deola D’Brown (17) – all classy imports – starred.

■ ATHERTON-born Todd Waters finished in the top 10 of the feature race at the Monster Energy AUS-X Open Sydney at Qudos Bank Arena.

Originally from Atherton, Waters is considered a young gun in the field and will take on the world’s best.

Scotsman Dean Wilson won Saturday’s feature race while Waters finished tenth overall. Wilson becomes the first European to win the prestigious event after battling it out early with local Aussie hero Dan Reardon and fellow AMA Supercross teammate Jason Anderson.

■ FORMER Taipan Jamar Wilson last week inked a new deal with French club Nanterre 92.

The 33-year-old point guard signed with Nanterre 92 for the 2017-18 season

■ THE Townsville Fire and former Cairns Dolphin Cayla George produced a clinical shooting performance to thrash the Bendigo Spirit 94-59 at Townsville Stadium on Saturday night.

It was a superb scoring spread, with 10 players scoring six points or more.

George, who has family in the Far North, had eight points and 11 rebounds in the victory.

The Fire travel to South Australia to play the Adelaide Lightning in Round 7 of the WNBL this coming Saturday.