Moss Vale Magic have made it to five wins in a row with an emphatic 75-47 win over their “arch-rivals” the Illawarra Hawks.
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Thje round seven of the NSW Waratah Youth League Basketball Competition was played at Moss Vale Basketball Stadium on April 22.
The Magic got going early and jumped to an early 13-2 lead on the back of some hot shooting from Magic Guards Billy Campbell and Josh Watts.
Brandon De Souza and Connor Wroe landed back-to-back three-pointers and it looked like the Magic would run away with the match in the first quarter.
However the Hawks fought their way back into the contest when point guard Tom Cranney responded with seven first quarter points of his own to reduce the deficit to 19-16 at quarter time.
Both teams traded baskets in the second period as the Hawks started to find their range and found themselves in front 26-25 midway through the quarter.
Consecutive long range bombs from Watts and Campbell put the Magic back in front.
Rhys Pryor and Connor Wroe dominated the rebound contests and the Magic went on a 10-0 run to close out the first half with a handy 41-29 lead.
The Magic made some adjustments to their defence at half time which seemed to disrupt the Hawks offence and restrict them to just 8 points for the quarter.
The Magic scored 20 points of their own to take a commanding 61-37 lead at three-quarter time. Brad Frost led the way for the Magic with some really strong defence on the Hawks Guards that forced them into numerous turnovers.
The Magic kept the defensive pressure on in the last quarter to restrict the Hawks to 10 points as they went on to take a 75-47 victory.
Coach Kev Campbell was able to rotate his bench throughout the game with all nine players on the Magic roster getting on the scoreboard.
"You know it's never going to be an easy game when you play the Illawarra Hawks, it doesn't matter where they are on the ladder, they are always well coached ,well drilled and they always come to play particularly in the local derbys such as this,” he said.
“It's very pleasing to get the W over them tonight especially considering we were without regular starter Zac Ottosson and back up guard Dylan Palmer-Quigg for this game."
Campbell said he was impressed with the team’s effort on defence in the second half.
"It was great to see the contributions we got tonight from the entire squad with our bench players really step up in the absence of Zac and Dylan."
The win secured the Magic top spot on the NSW Youth League table.
The Magic will travel to Camden on April 29 to take on the Camden Valley WildFire at 6pm.
Magic Top scorers:
Billy Campbell with a game high 25 pts, Josh Watts 15 pts, Rhys Pryor 11 pts, Connor Wroe 10 pts, Alex Davenport 4 pts, Carter Reeves 4 pts, Brandon De Souza 3 pts, Brad Frost 2 pts abd Daniel Field 1 pt.