Nathan Herbert on the rim.
The Crazy Johns South Dragons made it seven pre-season wins in a row after a 118-98 thrashing of the Adelaide 36ers at Knox on Saturday. Nick Horvath led the Dragons with 29, and Nathan Herbert had a monster game with 27 points on 11 of 13 shooting, including five of seven from long range.
Joe Ingles scored 16 in his second game back since the Olympics, while Rhys Carter had 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
The Dragons raced out to a 14-0 lead and it wasn’t until the 8:09 mark that Adelaide got on board thanks to a couple of free throws from Luke Schenscher. The 36ers fought back to close the gap to 33-27 after one, with Aaron Bruce leading the way with 12 points.
Horvath hit seven of ten shots in the first half and helped the Dragons to a 60-49 lead at the break. In the third quarter, the lead expanded, which has been a Dragons pre-season tradition. But it didn't happen without a fight, as the 36ers closed the gap to five, before the Dragons closed out the quarter with a 23-10 run and forged an 85-67 lead. Horvath was dominant with 13 points, while Herbert hit two big threes.
The fourth quarter was a see-saw affair which saw a three-point shootout between Herbert and former Dragon Brad Hill. The Dragons outscored Adelaide 33-31 to make it 24 quarters won in 28 quarters of pre-season play.
Mark Worthington led the Dragons with ten rebounds, while Tremell Darden had ten points and seven rebounds, and Mika Vukona scored nine points and grabbed six boards.
For Horvath, it was another superb outing, and he finished the pre-season as the club’s leading scorer at 22 points per game.
“Winning’s a habit is the old cliché,” said Horvath. “We have confidence. We know we’re not there yet, but it’s a foundation and we know if we keep building, keep working day in and day out, we can do something good.”
Herbert, after a couple of cold-shooting games, has caught fire in the past few games.
“You start making some shots and your confidence just goes up,” Herbert said. The offense that we’re running gets us a lot of good looks and it’s a great group of guys to play with.”
Herbert was also on the end of a near alley-oop play that saw him hit with a questionable technical foul for hanging on the rim.
“I never knew I could get up that high,” he laughed. “I was just trying to protect myself from falling down on my back. I’ll just tell all my friends I dunked it.”
Once again, head coach Brian Goorjian was pleased by the effort of his young squad.
“It’s been a good pre-season,” said Goorjian. “It’s not about the results. We’ve got some young guys who wanted to stay and we brought in some new guys who wanted to come here. And I think there’s a common theme – they all want to get better and they see this as a place where they can do that. It thrills me when you see kids improving and stepping up.”
The Dragons head coach also praised the work of Guy Molloy, who stood in while Goorjian was away in Beijing. “You have to give a lot of credit to Guy Molloy. He’s worked feverishly with the guys who were here and I’m excited about the improvement I see in all those guys.”
Former NBA big man Schenscher led Adelaide with 19, while Bruce and veteran Brett Maher scored 17 each.
South Dragons 118 (Horvath 29, Herbert 27, Ingles 16, Carter 15)
Adelaide 36ers 98 (Schenscher 19, Bruce, Maher 17)