Rumours were afoot pre-match that Dwight Howard would be starting at centre for Norwood, but apparently they didn’t think their big man could handle the best defence in the north pool. Instead, the Flames fielded kindling but forgot the matches – who needs length when you’ve got Ray Allen, right?

Memo to Norwood Basketball Club: you don’t got Ray Allen.

The Griffins took full advantage of the lack of Norwood height in the first, pulling down spades of offensive boards and converting second chance points. Stu – elevated to cover the absence of Max and Yours Truly – along with Pete were the main beneficiaries in the first period, putting in 5 and 7 points respectively. On the back of their aggressive play, the Griffins got to the charity stripe seven times for the quarter, although only converting 6 of the 13 freebies.

Griffins 22 – 14 Norwood

Deciding they couldn’t hack going mano-a-mano with the Griffins, Norwood switched to a zone in the second, somewhat slowing the Griffins scoring rate. Pete and Tom still managed to find holes in their defence, however, collecting 6 points each. The second period was most notable for a momentus event involving a certain Patty B. Left wide open on the far side of the court, Patty decided he wanted the ball. No, like – he really wanted the ball. He even called for it. Twice. The kicker? We could hear it on the bench. But did he get the ball? Alas, no – Tom decided to drive through three players for the lay-in instead. Maybe he thought it wasn’t Patty?

Griffins 40 – 29 Norwood

The third was a tight affair – the Griffins shading it 12 to 11, with no player from either side scoring more than a single field goal each. I got no funny stories for this quarter – it was pretty boring. The ref did ask me if I ever smiled, though. Did anyone see Chris Rock yapping in Kobe’s ear on the bench in game 2? I told the ref “no” and gave the opposite wall of the stadium a cold, hard, Kobe stare.

Griffins 52 – 40 Norwood

The Flames sparked a little early in the fourth, hitting a couple of threes and making the Griffins defence look shit. Who am I kidding? A couple of times it was shit. They got within 6 points of the lead, but Brad and Jesse found their range from beyond the arc and with a couple of quick baskets and some woeful foul shooting when it mattered from Norwood, the game was done.

Griffins 68 – 59 Norwood (Pete 20, Tom 12, Stu 11, Patty 9, Brad 7, Jesse 7, Nath 2)

Props to Pete and Tom for making the offence happen all night, as well as to Stu for taking no time at all to get into stride in div 4 in the last two weeks. Good win lads!

So I hear there’s another division 4 men’s team? Not quite sure what’s up with that, but a little birdy tells me if you wait patiently and keep checking this here website that you might come across a wee tale of whatever happened on the other court at Hillcrest whilst we were busy watering Norwood down to size.

As for me? Tune in next week to see if you’ll roar with manic laughter as the king of puns returns to narrate our clash with the Centrals Lions. Now, maybe I’ll stop lion around and go watch a replay of game three…

Good luck to everyone going to Tanunda!