Men’s Norwood Flames vs North Adelaide Rockets
The Norwood Flames (4-6) and the North Adelaide Rockets (2-8). The Flames have had an inconsistent season and are looking to find a way to get themselves rolling to have a good ending to the season. The Rockets have struggled with a very young team this season so they look to be a good team to try and gain some momentum against.
The game opened with a surprisingly defensive stance from both teams, as both teams usually score at a considerable rate. Eventually, the Rockets found their way to the rim and the Flames answered strong with a 7-point run. This run was responded to by the Rockets as offence started to take over the game. The Flames were winning the offensive battle as almost all the starters were taking over in their own ways on offence. This dynamic offensive approach made it impossible for the Rockets to stop every option the Flames threw at them. The energy coming from scoring also stepped up the Flames’ defence and limited easy opportunities for North Adelaide. The quarter ended with the Flames up, 17-31.
The second half continued the offensive focus of the game, both teams scoring in bunches and trying to out firepower each other. The young Rockets squad enjoys this style of fast-paced basketball and thrives, able to outscore the Flames. The offensive momentum of the Flames was stifled by their opponent’s energy, as the Flames struggled all quarter to find consistent offensive strategies. Thankfully some hot shooting at the end of the quarter gave Norwood something to build on at halftime, 48-54.
Again the Rockets had the upper hand for the third. The start of the quarter saw the Rockets go on a massive run and take the lead early in the quarter. The Flames now playing from behind, brought the game back to even and it looked like a tight battle would take place until the Rockets went on a quick 10-point run. Jack Hemphill scored 5-straight to try and bring the game back into Norwoods’ favour before the quarter came to an end, 72-65.
The fourth quarter was very even to start as both teams had found offensive momentum. This time the experience and depth of the Flames were on display and they slowly came back into the game, highlighted by a three-to-tie the game from Jack Stanwix. The Rockets regained some momentum and went on a 7-0 run forcing a timeout from coach Tim Odell. The timeout successfully stabalised the team. Being down 1-point, Cooper Osborne went to the line with 40 seconds to go. He split the pair, tying the game and forcing the Flames to have a good defensive possession to end the game. A steal from Issac Miler-Jose led to a jump ball which the Flames won giving them the last shot. Unfortunately, the shot was blocked and the game went into OT.
The Flames were able to get a good run in OT, attacking the rim well and making the right passes to open threes or dump-off passes to open cutters. Being able to get whatever we wanted on the offensive end led to an easy OT and a great win for the Norwood Flames, 106-119.
