They expected a Blaze and were met with an inferno; the Crazy John’s South Dragons tonight went down by 20 points to the Gold Coast Blaze in a heated contest at Vodafone Arena. (Click HERE for full box scores.)
Scott McGregor was first on the board for the Blaze, while it was starting point guard Luke Martin (14 points, seven boards, three assists) who launched the Dragons’ attack with two of his own.
The Blaze shot hard and fast early on to lead 8-2 just minutes in before Cortez Groves (12 points, four rebounds) landed one from downtown to trim that buffer to three.
It was all the Blaze’s way in the opening minutes as Jason Crowe led the visitors to a 12-point advantage by midway through the term.
But Martin and Groves kept the scores rolling to narrow the buffer to just two points and it was Jacob Holmes (five points, 11 boards, four assists) who landed one to level the scores at 14-apiece with four minutes left on the clock.
The Blaze again found the momentum to establish the lead, up by seven points until Nathan Herbert (five points, two assists) sunk two points on the siren to lock the scores at 21-26 at the first break.
Burston was first to fire in the second with two at the charity stripe before Joe Ingles (11 points, five boards, four assists) hit three to level the scores at 26-all two minutes into the term. When Ingles and Burston teamed for two points and Matt Shanahan (two points, two boards, one assist) went coast to coast, the Dragons hit the lead for the first time, 30-26.
But again the Blaze fought back, courtesy of 10 points to Pero Cameron with Hawkins and Jason Crowe in support; successive baskets to Cameron had the visitors up by seven.
A 14-point haul for the term from Burston was not enough to halt the raging Blaze, the Queenslanders finding all the answers when needed most.
Groves, too, stepped it up a gear to trim the margin to three but when Crowe converted from the stripe the visitors squared away a 53-48 lead at the major change.
It was all the visitors’ way throughout the third term as Hawkins and Cameron took care of the points and McGregor took control of the boards.
The Blaze outscored the home side 22-17 for the term, finding an immediate reply to every Dragons move to set up a 10-point margin by the final break.
With some work to do in the final stanza the Dragons hit the ground running via Martin, with the first two points on the board. But eight points was as close as the home side would come, James Harvey pouring in 10 fourth-term points to extinguish any hope the Dragons had of gaining the upper hand.
In a heated final term Gold Coast poured in 24 points to the Dragons’ 14 to run out 20-point victors, 99-79 the final score.
The Crazy John’s South Dragons now travel to Adelaide to take on the 36ers at Distinctive Homes Dome tomorrow night.
Crazy John’s South Dragons 79 (Burston 22, Martin 14, Groves 12)
Gold Coast Blaze 99 (Hawkins 21,Crowe 21, Harvey 20)
Crowd: 3310 @ Vodafone Arena