MIA League basketball
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IT HAS been an auspicious start to the MIA League basketball competition with Leeton getting a win over Narrandera at Narrandera Stadium last Saturday.
The men's team, which is starting a rebuilding phase, scored a 50-45 win over the Knights.
However the women's side went down in a thriller, 45-43.
Having led 10-8 at the end of the first quarter, Leeton's middle half let the side down with the Knights kicking on to sink 26 points to 16.
The women then kicked up a gear in the final stanza to outscore Narrandera 16-11, but they fell three points short.
Young gun Maddy Clyne dominated for the Eagles, bagging 20 points.
Jane Houghton scored nine and Alice Greatz six.
The men's game was tight throughout with Leeton only pulling away in the fourth quarter. Trailing by three at the long break, it was a shoot-out in the third as both sides put up 20 points.
However, the Eagles outscored the Knights 13-5 in the last term to take the win.
"I'm always happy to get a win," coach Brendan Sims said.
"As I expected with them, they had a similar team to us, with young blokes and older blokes. It was good to get a win and the young fellas rose to the challenge.
"They had our number for the majority of the game. I had to change things up defensively in the fourth.
"That upset them and they had no space for the young guys to work in. We also had a few shots dropping."
Bryce Butler picked up the game well after just one training run, working well inside with Jason Vant. Todd McLean rebounded well and Bas Blackett's defence in the third and fourth quarters was outstanding.
Jason Vant's size and experience provided a "security blanket" for the Eagles, while Joseph Tripodi also used his experience to good effect.
The coach produced an outstanding game, putting up half his side's score, with McLean adding seven and Vant and Tiopodi five each.
Sims said the second round against Griffith tomorrow night would give his side a better grounding of where it is at.
"The real challenge lies this week in Griffith," he said. "They are big blokes and I expect some of the older, experienced guys to be back.
"Hopefully (we) can not shy away from that challenge.
"We're going to need a better scoring balance. We need the young blokes to put it in the hoop more often.
"You've got to be patient and make space in basketball. The young guys are physically there to just wing it, they need to spread the court."
Sims said he would go into tomorrow night with a cliche firmly in mind.
"It will be more about performance than results this week," he said.
Results
Women: Narrandera 45 d Leeton 42 (Maddy Clyne 20, Jane Houghton 9, Alice Greatz 6, Clare Vant 4, Tracey Fletcher 3)
Men: Leeton 50 (Brendan Sims 25, Todd McLean 7, Jason Vant 5, Joseph Tripodi 5, Bryce Butler 4, Kurtis DePaoli 3, Bas Blackett 1) d Narrandera 45
****
Draw
Round 2, Westend Stadium
Griffith v Leeton
5.30pm: Women
7pm: Men