Saints thrash Magic, extend lead
THE frontrunner pulled away and the bottom two moved closer to the chasing pack.
A commanding display extended the St Kilda Saints’ lead atop the men’s club basketball table on Saturday.
They thrashed the Mid City Magic 8556 at the Edgar Centre in Dunedin and remain unbeaten eight weeks into the season.
It also gave the Saints a threewin buffer at the top.
That came as the secondplaced Magic Lions were upset 9173 by the City Rise Bombers, who won their first game, while the Andy Bay Falcons claimed their second win, beating Varsity 7063.
It was the Saints’ win that was the most eyecatching though.
While the Magic is missing key players to the Nuggets, there was still plenty of quality among the team that played on Saturday. That was evident early, too. Mitchell Hughan (11 points) proved tough to stop early and helped the Magic out to an early 2618 lead.
However, the defending champion managed just three secondquarter points.
The offence went cold, while the Saints piled on 27 points at the other end.
Nuggets centre Jack Andrew (21 points) was key both in being a dynamic presence inside, while also showing an ability to step out and shoot from range.
That helped the Saints quickly haul in the deficit, then pull out to a 4529 halftime lead, after two threepointers to Sautia Misa.
The Magic rediscovered its scoring touch in the third quarter, but it was unable to close the gap.
Saints guard James Ross, who was returning from injury, had nine of his 15 points in that period and gave the side a 6748 lead at threequarter time.
That dominance continued in the fourth quarter, as the Magic added just eight further points to its total.
The Bombers claimed their win after outscoring the Lions 5728 in the second half.
The Lions, who were without key big man Nathan Hanna, led 4534 at halftime.
However, the Bombers took a 6459 lead into the final quarter, after Lawrence Kim dropped 21 of his 33 points in the third.
From there, they continued to pull away, both Steve Robinson (21 points) and James Collins (15 points) chipping in throughout the fourth quarter.
The Falcons claimed their victory after holding Varsity to 17 points in the second and third quarters combined.
While Varsity mounted a fourthquarter comeback, the 5337 threequarter time deficit proved too much to overcome.
Paden Kennedy led a balanced scoring effort for the Falcons with 13 points, while Sam Seleen had 17 for Varsity.