NBL1 South Round 4 Friday Men’s Recap

Catch up with all the action from the first game of round 4 of the NBL1 South Men's competition.

Hobart Chargers 74 def  Eltham Wildcats 72

The Hobart Chargers have held on to win one of the most exciting games of the NBL1 season in front of its home fans against the Eltham Wildcats.
The Chargers started the game on a roll, simply out-hustling the Wildcats, who were struggling to find an answer for Hobart’s ball movement.
Koen Sapwell was looking confident early for the Chargers. He closed the quarter with an impressive one-footed mid-range bank shot in the final seconds. Sapwell finished the game with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
The second quarter saw much of the same action, however the shots stopped going in for Hobart, as Eltham did its best to break down the 11-point margin.
The Wildcats continually looked to get Ovie Magbegor going inside, however great team defence from the Chargers, as well as some individual defensive brilliance from Zach White ensured the Eltham forward had a quiet first half.
Heading into half time, the Wildcats somewhat surprisingly only trailed by 10 points, which clearly gave the side some confidence that it could get back in front.
After a sloppy start to the third quarter, which saw neither team score over the first three minutes, Eltham slowly started to whittle away at the lead.
Simon Bradbury did his best for the Wildcats, using his size to score inside, while the overall ball-movement started to kick into gear for Eltham.
While a pair of three-pointers from Hobart guards Elijah Pawson and Jonathan Mines kept the Chargers in the lead, the momentum was well and truly with Eltham going into the final term.
After each side traded important buckets down the stretch, the game would ultimately come down to the final two minutes.
Adam Doyle had a massive game for the Wildcats, scoring 19 points, 10 of which came in the final term, including a three pointer with around a minute left which brought Eltham back within three points.
After some strong defence, the Wildcats struck again, this time through Sam Whelan, who buried a deep three with 10 seconds left to tie the game.
With all the momentum behind Eltham, it was going to take a special effort for the Chargers to secure the win, however Mines was up for the task, connecting on a tough close range shot to put Hobart back in front with four seconds remaining.
Mines finished the game as the top scorer, tallying 21 points to go along with a trio of three-pointers.
Eltham's last opportunity to take the game to overtime would ultimately go to Magbegor, who challenged White at the rim with 1.5 seconds left and was fouled.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, he would literally come up short from the free throw line, airballing the first attempt to seal the win for Hobart.