Hawks dominate with 63-point victory while Pumas and Chapman Valley win comfortably in round two of the GABA

Blowout wins across the board were recorded in round two action of men’s division 1 games in the Geraldton Amateur Basketball Association. In this biggest win of round two, Robert Griechen led the charge dropping a monster 51 points during the Hawks 114-51 dismantling of Stateside, while Pumas managed to pick up their first win of the season with a 100-61 victory over Trades. After a close first half, Chapman Valley took care of business in the second to come away a 91-66 win in the Tuesday, October 17 match. The Olympians had a firing start, as they quickly scored nine points with consecutive threes, including back-to-back makes from Liam Bennett. Geordie Murray put Chapman Valley on the board and was followed up by Elliot Bennett, who was fouled while going to the rim. After sinking the first one he missed the second shot, but teammate Russell Hurst grabbed the rebound and found the open man for two. A fast break from Valley’s Llewyn Valli put them in the lead by two points to end the first quarter. The Valley came out of the gate firing in the second, as they quickly built a 10-point lead before a timeout was called. Quinton Narkle and Christian Wright put up consecutive points, helping make it a one-point game before Chapman Valley got back on track and Murray sunk a three at the buzzer, going into the half up 43-36. Scoring opened up for the Valley in the second half as they outscored the Olympians by 10 in the third and 16 in the fourth to run away with the 25-point win. Valli had 22 points in the win and Elliot Bennett dropped 21. Narkle led the Olympians in scoring with 19 points and Liam Bennett had 18, with both players sinking four three-pointers in the loss. The next day’s slate started with Pumas having a dominant first half to end up winning 100-61 against Trades. Pumas ran laps around Trades in the first two quarters as the score was 65-34 at the half, with Tom Dobson and William Galvin dropping 23 and 18 first-half points, respectively. Trades came out in the second half looking more competitive, as Coby Ryan and Jake Baker managed some early scoring but did not seem to have an answer for the opposition as a deep three by Dobson to start the fourth put them up by 40. Pumas were held to their lowest scoring quarter of 14 in the fourth but Trades could not capitalise and the game ended 100-61. Galvin finished with 28 and Dobson had 26 in the win, while Trades’ Lachlan Morphew and Ryan both had 14. The biggest win came in the clash between Hawks and Stateside, as Hawks picked up their first win with a 63-point blowout. Robert Griechen dominated around the court and made an immediate impact, as he scored the first points of the game and intercepted a Stateside pass to get the ball back. Hawks went up quickly but Markus Orchard from Stateside sunk a three to get their side going. However, the Hawks’ offensive pressure put them up 26-14 in the first quarter. Fletcher Klasztorny worked through traffic to score early in the second for the Hawks, and Stateside struggled to contain the Hawks playmakers, as Dylan Griechen was able to work underneath and score at the rim. Going into the third, Robert Griechen had the hot hand, scoring from deep after being left open and attacking the rim when defenders pushed up. Hawks came away with the 114-51 win against Stateside, with Robert Griechen scoring 51 points with six threes. Stuart Egan had 14 points and Orchard had 13 for Stateside. Closer games were played in division 2 as Olympians defeated Chapman Valley 64-43, Stateside beat Hawks 60-50, and Trades took down Pumas 46-34.