THE Albury-Wodonga Bandits emerged triumphant over the Brisbane Spartans in a physical and at-times spiteful SEABL clash at the Lauren Jackson Sports Centre last night.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Albury-Wodonga kept its unbeaten home record intact with a 94-83 triumph in a game that included two unsportsmanlike and two technical fouls.
In a roller-coaster performance, the Bandits squandered a 16-point second-period lead before roaring home in the final minutes after an ugly melee half-way through the fourth quarter sparked the hosts into action.
Imports Donte Nicholas and Cory Dixon led a balanced scoring attack for the hosts, with Nicholas terrorising the Spartans for 25 points, 11 rebounds and an astounding eight steals.
Dixon added 20 points while Deba George and Daniel Sepokas were always dangerous with 19 and 13 points respectively.
For Brisbane, Isaih Tueta and Tim Coenraad each scored 21 points and Dean Brebner added 10 points as the Spartans slumped to a fourth-straight defeat.
Bandits coach Brad Chalmers was clearly frustrated at his team’s inconsistent intensity.
“Good to get a win but it wasn’t one of our finest performances,” Chalmers said.
“We were good enough in patches but it’s not where you want to be, getting a lead and then happily giving it up.
“It’s frustrating, it’s about finding a vein of form but our intensity just fell away.
“We were happy to be passive but at the end of the day they were able to find a way to get it done.
“We’ve got to find ways to keep the intensity high, we need to be a little better than that.”
Neither team looked particularly settled in the early going, the hosts working to a handy 18-11 advantage after six minutes of play.
Holding a 26-18 lead after the first stanza, the Border club staked a 16-point advantage before Brisbane pegged that back to 52-44 by the half.
It was an oddly passive Bandits outfit that started the third quarter and the Spartans took full advantage, storming back to take a 55-54 lead.
With just one point separating the teams and ten minutes to play, the Bandits needed an early boost — and got one from Dixon.
Consecutive baskets to the star import pushed the lead to six points before the game exploded.
A rebounding contest underneath the Brisbane basket turned nasty, resulting in the visitors’ second unsportsmanlike foul, this time to Louis Ilton.
The fired-up Bandits surged from there, playing inspired basketball at both ends of the floor to close out their tenth win of the season, a Nicholas steal and dunk the icing on the cake.
