Pirates Cruise Over Pigs

The Hunter Pirates have kept their run to the playoffs on track with a comfortable 96-85 victory over the lowly West Sydney Razorbacks tonight at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre.

Hunter were forced to play without star import Mike Helms for the second game in a row, but once again his absence made little difference as the Pirates all Australian line up recovered from a first quarter deficit to storm home over the cellar dwelling Razorbacks.

The strong victory backed up their surprise success in Adelaide last Saturday night and has moved them into prime position for a playoff spot with the gap back to the ninth placed Townsville Crocodiles now sitting at four wins.

Geordie Cullen continued to put his case forward for a permanent starting spot with another dazzling display that saw him score a game high 27 points on 10/19 shooting. He also crashed the boards for 12 rebounds as well as dishing out six assists to come up just short of what would have been a career first triple double.

Guard Aaron Trahair also kept up his improved play picking up the scoring slack that Helms has left behind with 24 points courtesy of five long bombs from 12 attempts, while the twin towers of Ben Melmeth (17 points and 10 rebounds) and Russell Hinder (14 points and nine rebounds) also made solid contributions to the win.

Pero Vasiljevic led the way for West Sydney in his 100th game in the NBL with 14 points and nine rebounds, while youngsters Rhys Carter (14 points), Clint Reed (13 points) and Graeme Dann (13 points) all chipped in with fine efforts.

With 11 straight losses under their belt West Sydney looked like they may break that streak early in the first period when they went on a 10-0 run to take a 24-16 lead, but some late baskets from Trahair including a buzzer beating three pointer minimised the damage for the Pirates and saw them trail by just five points at the end of the first period (28-23).

The second term belonged to Cullen as the big man dominated scoring 12 points in the quarter to help the home side surge past the Pigs and take a handy four point buffer into the main break (55-51).

West Sydney refused to go away in the third period snapping away at the Pirates heels much to the crowds chagrin, but a last minute triple from Trahair eased the pressure on the home side as they went into the final change ahead 78-72.

Hunter finally put the Razorbacks to the sword early in the final quarter blowing their lead out to 17 points before easing down to record a well deserved 11 point win.

The Pirates (11-13) will be ringing in the new year in New Zealand when they take on the Breakers next Saturday night, while the Razorbacks (4-20) must have been on Santa’s naughty list as they must now face the league leading Kings next Friday night at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

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