Geraldton basketball round 4: Hawks come out on top over Pumas, while Valley extend undefeated streak

Hawks have taken Pumas’ spot of second on the ladder after handing them an 83-70 loss on Wednesday. In the battle between second and third in round four of the Geraldton Amateur Basketball Association, the Hawks jumped out to an early lead and didn’t look back. Both teams started firing early before the scoring slowed down, but Hawks managed to build their lead and a Fletcher Klasztorny dunk at the buzzer put them ahead by 11 points at quarter-time. Hawks continued to look surgical throughout the first half as Robert Griechen was sitting on 18 points in the first two quarters. Klasztorny took over in the third quarter, dropping 11 points and helping build the lead to 20 points. Pumas went on a late run with of Harry Evans running the floor and finding scoring opportunities for Tom Dobson. Dobson managed to cut the lead down to 10 points in the fourth, but quick scores from Ryan Blanchett put the final nail in the coffin as Hawks walked away with the 83-70 win. In the win, Klasztorny had 26 points and Griechen dropped 22, while for the Pumas, Dobson scored 25 points and Evans scored 18. Chapman Valley extended their undefeated streak to four straight wins after picking up a 90-62 win over Stateside in the late game. The game was competitive early as Connor Westbrook from the Scorpions had four three-pointers in the first quarter. Valley pulled away with a 27-point second quarter, going up big at the half and not giving up the lead in the second half. Llewyn Valli scored 28 points in the win along with 17 points from Russell Hurst, while Westbrook and Tristan Jacques had 17 each for Stateside. In the Tuesday match-up, Olympians came away with a 106-89 win against Trades. It was a three-point party as both sides were chucking it from deep and there were a combined 25 threes scored in the game. It was the scoring at the rim that Trades couldn’t keep up with as Olympians’ consistent scoring let them pull away. In his second game, Johny Narkle played a bigger role and took over late to stamp out a Trades comeback attempt. The Olympians had 20 points from Liam Bennett and 18 from Richard Bartlett, while Joseph Iaria scored 19 in the loss and Jake Baker had 17 for Trades. In division two, Trades remain undefeated with a 70-31 win over Olympians, Chapman Valley upset Stateside 59-50, and Pumas took down Hawks 71-48.