Stopping shooters secret to Uni’s Win

UNI REBELS’ one-two punch of Marcus Ch’ng and Tom Uppena saw the defending champions start the Darwin League Men basketball season in impressive fashion on Friday night.

Ch’ng and Uppena combined for 58 of the Rebels’ 70 points in their three-point win over an Eagles outfit missing four starters, including import Ernest Holmes.

The final margin flattered the youth-laden Eagles, who led 11-4 early and by a point at three-quarter time but ran out of steam in the fourth quarter.

The last of Uppena’s 28 points gave the Rebels a seven-point buffer with two minutes to go, before Eagles guard Reece Turner buried a desperation triple – his fifth – to cut the deficit to three with seven seconds left.

But Ch’ng (30) dribbled the ball up court with surprisingly little pressure as time ran out.

The strong-bodied point guard was the contest’s dominant force, whether pulling up for jumpers or aggressively driving the ball to the hoop.

“We knew if we stayed in the game and controlled their three-point shooters – which we spoke about at the start of the game – we’d be there at the end,” Ch’ng said.

“We knew they had a lot of fresh legs. They had a lot of guards, so they were always going to run us and we just had to stay with them.

“A lot of our younger guys stepped up really big today and I thought our bigs were pretty good – Lionel (Oger) and Tom crashed the boards, which put us in great shape at the end.”

The Uni Rebels also had key players out, most notably star import Tyler Jefferson, who is set to make his season debut next week.

Turner poured in 14 of his 21 points in the first half, including four shots from beyond the arc, to inspire the Eagles to a 38-37 half-time edge.

But he went cold in the last two quarters as the Rebels closed in on him – and his lack of offensive support told.

Meekin Wright scored all 10 of his points to half-time, while Jessie Hook chipped in with 11.

Eagles coach Donna Hurst bemoaned her under-strength line-up, but said that was not the sole reason for the defeat.

“We lost our heart in the end; we weren’t intense enough,” Hurst said.

“The players who could have won the game for us were pretty tired and weren’t pushing it as much as they should have.

“Fitness is a key component and we need to push defence a lot harder than we did tonight.”

Tracy Village Jets downed Lightning 68-57 in the season-opening League Men match on Thursday night, while Lightning beat the Uni Rebels 55-47 in League Women.

 

Write-up from NT News

 

Click on the link below for Match Results

Men's Game: Uni Rebels Vs Eagles

http://www.foxsportspulse.com/round_info.cgi?a=MATCH&fixture=509328898&c=0-166-0-376524-0&pool=1

Women's Game: Uni Rebels Vs Lightning

http://www.foxsportspulse.com/round_info.cgi?a=MATCH&fixture=509866479&c=0-166-0-377614-0&pool=1