Griffith Demons 83
Wagga Heat 58
THE Wagga Heat were left a smouldering ember at West End Stadium on Saturday as a red-hot Griffith Demons side again pushed their claims for top-position in the State League basketball competition, thanks to a thumping 25-point win over their arch-rivals.
The visitors were never in the game, as a second-quarter surge by the Demons was combined with foul trouble to several of Wagga's key men to leave them well short of the home side.
The Demons won the psychological battle as well, with plenty of fiery incidents leading to trash-talking by a frustrated Wagga side when they saw their chances of beating their arch-rivals slip away.
While admitting his side did not play a perfect game, Griffith coach Andrew Cullen said his side was excellent at both ends of the court, which was the difference when their execution offensively went off the boil.
"It was methodical really, I don't think we played that great but we did what we had to do and they tried to fire us up as well," Cullen said.
"My first play I got hit and nearly had my jaw taken out, but I kept going and there was a bit of spice but that's what it's all about.
"There was a bit of that (trash-talking) but I said to the guys 'keep going with what we're doing' because if we played like we did for the whole game, their fitness couldn't keep up with ours towards the end."
After Cullen's heavy collision set the tone for the first-quarter, Steve McCanna brought excellent energy off the bench as he helped spark the Demons attack to see them take the lead and the momentum into the first break 22-16.
Thanks to excellent ball movement around the perimeter to start the second term, both Andrew and Nick Cullen began to find their range from the field as Griffith went on a 14-4 run.
"With Leon (Rosborough) sucking up the boards (rebounds) like he does, it can allow Nick (Cullen), Mick (Duncan), Cappy, (Andrew Cappello) and even myself to really put on the pressure and get steals, and once we get out and running we're hard to stop," Cullen said.
Despite the Demons taking a 12-point lead into half-time, a disjointed third-term -thanks to several refereeing decisions which took an eternity to be handed down -saw the energy drop out of the game.
But a four-point play from Andrew Cullen saw Griffith again pull away from Wagga which was plunged into foul trouble late as Matt Bishop, Dom Tye and Chris Ballard were forced to warm the bench.
The margin began to prove too much for Wagga in the third-quarter, who rushed their shot selection and failed to work the clock and the court to find open shots, which only tipped the game further in Griffith's favour.
While Rosborough was active on the glass all night, he appeared frustrated by a lack of open lanes to the basket late in the game, but nonetheless the Demons got the charity stripe often as they sealed the game.
Guard Mick Duncan capped off an excellent all-round game to be the team's top-scorer with 22 points, closely followed by Andrew Cullen (15 points) and Nick Cullen (15 points).
Despite defeating Illawarra earlier this year, Cullen said his side were under no illusions as to how hard and important their next game against the high-flying side will be.
"Next weekend is going to be a very hard game, travelling to Illawarra and I know they play NBL players when they're at home, but if we can snap that one then we're really looking the goods," he said.
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