Geraldton basketball round 8: Top teams of men’s division one take care of business

The top sides took care of business in round eight of men’s division one in the Geraldton Amateur Basketball Association. There were no upsets as the top three sides faced off against the bottom three. Starting with Chapman Valley who dominated the Pumas in convincing fashion, coming away with a 30-point victory on Tuesday. The Valley had one of their fastest starts to the season, coming out the gates flying with a 30-point first quarter, compared to a Pumas side that had just nine points. A stronger showing in the second quarter, lead by Flynn Dillon and Tom Dobson helped bring some life into the Pumas, but they still couldn’t close the gap with Valley. A 25-point fourth quarter from the leading side was too much to keep up with as the Valley got the 92-62 win over the Pumas. The win continues their undefeated streak as Chapman Valley keep rolling with eight wins and zero losses. Lleywn Valli lead the charge for the Valley, dropping 24 points in the win, while Aaron Ralph had a strong shooting performance with six threes and Dobson had 20 points for the Pumas in the loss. While the result ended with the Olympians coming out on top, the winless Stateside nearly pulled off an upset against the second-placed team. The Scorpions had the jump as they took a three-point lead in the first quarter, but their second and fourth quarter efforts let them down as they couldn’t hold on to the lead for long enough. The Olympians’ final push avoid helped them avoid the scare, as they escaped with a 80-71 win. Quinton Narkle put the Olympians on his back and accounted for half of his team’s total score in the win, with a 40-point game. In the final match on Wednesday, the Hawks blew away the Trades by 34 points to reclaim third place on the ladder. Both sides came out in a fully offensive assault to start the match, but the Trades scoring slowed down in the second half while the Hawks didn’t skip a beat, winning 113-79. The Hawks Robert Griechen and Ryan Blanchett dominated with 38 and 32 points respectively, while Jake Baker showed up for Trades with 28 points. The men’s division two games had the Pumas get a 92-80 win over Chapman Valley, the Trades stayed undefeated with a 82-48 victory against the Hawks and the Olympians got up over Stateside 82-72.