Geraldton basketball round 9: Pumas snuff out Hawks comeback, while Olympians and Valley score blowout wins

In a clash that came down to the wire, the Pumas held on at the very end to beat Hawks 74-72 on Tuesday. The Pumas came out of the gate red-hot, with a scoring streak putting them up by 14 points in the first quarter. Hawks couldn’t slow down the pace of the game in the second quarter, with Harry Evans putting up consecutive scores for the Pumas, increasing their lead. A Hawks timeout half-way through the second quarter was met with a Tom Dobson three, extending the Pumas’ lead to 19 points as the game started to look out of hand. Robert Griechen put up quick scores late in the half, but the Hawks still went into half-time down 44-33. A back-and-forth third quarter had the Pumas still up by 14 points with just one quarter left to play, but the Hawks came out firing. They quickly started to hack away at the deficit, with Griechen and Ryan Blanchett putting up buckets to get them back in the game. Pumas’ scoring, which came so easily in the first half, came up shor, as a Griechen bucket made it a three-point game with less than 40 seconds left to play. Griechen then drew a foul and went to the line for two, sinking both to make it a one-point game. Pumas, however, were able to hold on in the end, and with Evans going to the line it was over as they made it out with the two-point win. Evans was the lead scorer for the Pumas with 22 points, while Griechen scored 28 in the losing effort. The other men’s division one games didn’t hold the same excitement on the Wednesday slate. Olympians were first up as they beat Trades by 25 points. Olympians had ball control from the start as a score within seconds of the start set the tone. Trades found scoring opportunities of their own but didn’t have any answers for what the Olympians were doing, with the scores separated by 22 points at half-time. Even so, both sides played with intensity and Olympians wouldn’t let up on defence, snuffing any chance of a comeback as they won 85-60. Johny Narkle and Liam Bennett helped lead their team to the win, scoring 28 and 24 points respectively, while Joseph Iaria had 15 points for Trades. The final game wasn’t any prettier, as Chapman Valley remained undefeated with a 106-41 blowout against Stateside. While the Valley were missing their lead scorer Aaron Ralph, it didn’t seem to matter as they had three players with 25 points-plus — Russell Hurst, Llewyn Valli and Dylan Myers. In the men’s division two, Pumas picked up a 65-58 win over Hawks, Stateside won a close game against Valley 48-44, and Trades continued their hot streak with a 72-39 win over Olympians.