Despite a busy night in the city, close to 9,000 screaming fans turned out to witness South Dragons comfortably defeat Melbourne Tigers at Hisense Arena in Friday’s NBL Championship fifth game decider.
Coming off the bottom of the table last season, it has been a true rags to riches journey for the men in black and a flag coach Brian Goorjian desired immensely.
The game started fast and furious, as expected, with the Tigers taking it up to their cross-town rivals and looking like having the goods to go back to back with a 7 point lead early in the game.
But it didn’t take long for the Dragons to get back into it, leading by 4 at the first break.
It was catch up from then on and the Tigers couldn’t produce what was needed to bridge the gap.
It was a physical encounter, but without any of the ugliness of recent times.
Quite simply, South outplayed Melbourne convincingly, both in physicality and class, the final 102-81 result showing their dominance.
Ere and Barlow both scored 16 for the Tigers, whereas Anstey didn’t reproduce his game four form and could only manage 12 points.
In contrast, Darden scored a game high 31 points for the Dragons with Smith next best on 21.
While a disappointing result for Melbourne coach Al Westover, his counterpart in Brian Goorjian had previously stated it would be a highlight of his career should they win.
He must now be pinching himself after taking the Dragons so far in such a short time, to be rewarded with the ultimate result.
Photo by Joseph Sirucka
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