Razorbacks' celebrations end abruptly - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Razorbacks' celebrations end abruptly

By Adrian Warren 14/01/2007 07:20:09 PM Comments (0)

Cyclone Anstey quickly blew away West Sydney's end-of-losing-streak celebrations, powering Melbourne to a crushing 115-82 win over the Razorbacks on Sunday.

Little more than 18 hours after ending its 20-match losing run, West Sydney was back in depressingly familiar territory.

The Razorbacks suffered a pre-match blow when leading scorer James Harvey was ruled out by Achilles tendonitis and things only got worse once the game started.

Tigers' centre Chris Anstey scored 13 points in the opening quarter and repeated the dose in the third on his way to a game-high 30-point haul.

The reigning league MVP made 12 of his 16 field goal attempts and was given the final quarter off by Tigers' coach Al Westover.

Sparked by Anstey, Melbourne led by eight at quarter time, 11 at the half and 23 at the final change.

Melbourne's 18th victory in 25 games put it level on wins and losses with Perth in the battle for second place behind Brisbane.

The Razorbacks, who broke their losing streak in Wollongong on Saturday night, slumped to their second 30-point-plus defeat in the last week.

They never got the deficit into single digits after the first quarter as they crashed to their 23rd loss in 26 games.

The Tigers shot an impressive 64 per cent from the field, with forward Stephen Hoare tallying 18 points on eight from 11 field goal shooting.

Hoare also added six rebounds and as many assists while other double digit scorers for Melbourne were Dave Thomas (15), Rashad Tucker (14), Nathan Crosswell (13) and Axel Dench (11).

Heeding Westover's call for better ball control, the Tigers turned it over just 13 times.

Centre Ya Ya Dia was the Razorbacks' top scorer with 20 points, but both he and highly rated youngster Julian Khazzouh were unable to contain Anstey.

West Sydney shot at just under 40 per cent from the field with Dia the only Razorback to score more than 13 points.

Brought to you by AAP AAP © 2024 AAP

0 Comments about this article

Post a comment about this article

Please sign in to leave a comment.
Becoming a member is free and easy, sign up here.

« All sports news