Victories mean sides remain unbeaten

BASKETBALL

EARLYSEASON form is proving tough to disrupt.

The St Kilda Saints and Varsity both remained unbeaten three weeks into the men’s club basketball season at the Edgar Centre on Saturday.

They will meet each other in a topofthetable clash next week.

While it is a familiar spot for the Saints, Varsity may have caught a few by surprise.

The students have already won more games than the two they won in the whole season last year.

Their latest victory came on the back of a 278 third quarter, the side downing the Andy Bay Falcons 7463.

Kyle Owen gave Varsity an early edge as it led 2018 at the first break.

The guard showed his scoring versatility and hit several tough shots to score 16 points in the first quarter.

However, Falcons guard Ihaia Kendrew (16 points) was equally potent early and he helped ignite the side early in the second quarter.

Paden Kennedy (14 points) began scoring in transition, before a pair of threepointers to Lawrence Kim (nine points) gave the Falcons a handy lead.

Varsity entered halftime trailing 4335, but hit back straight away.

It began getting stops on defence, while it crashed the offensive glass to create several secondchance shots.

Billy Tompkinson was key in that regard, scoring eight of his 12 points in the quarter.

A 120 run forced the Falcons into a timeout and while that stopped the bleeding somewhat, Varsity continued to get to the hoop.

The Falcons began to get to the line to generate some scoring.

However, they were unable to score a field goal in the quarter and went into the fourth trailing 6251.

That margin was pulled back to seven in the fourth quarter, but Varsity held on to claim victory.

The Saints rode a strong start to beat the Mid City Magic 6862.

They hit six times from beyond the arc — three from Sautia Misa — to take a 2516 lead at quartertime.

The Magic reeled the deficit back to make it a twopoint game down the stretch, but the Saints got stops and closed the game out at the foul line.

Misa topscored for the Saints with 18 points, while Matt Dukes had 14 for the Magic.

A strong fourth quarter allowed the Magic Lions to pull clear of the City Rise Bombers to claim an 8072 win.

Olly McCombie had 24 points, while Nathan Hanna’s 19 included an impressive tip dunk as the Lions won the final quarter 2011 after a close game throughout.

Steve Robinson had 23 points for the Bombers.