The Mid City Magic showed its class to make an opening-day statement.
Mitchell Hughan, Dallas Hartmann and Patrick Freeman combined for 77 points, as they pulled away in the second half to claim a high-scoring victory over the Andy Bay Falcons in men’s club basketball on Saturday.
Little separated the teams through the first two and a-half quarters before the Magic trio ignited, pulling out to a 110-91 win.
The Magic led 57-56 early in the third quarter, when Hughan (27 points) got to the hoop and finished well.
It began a period of dominance from the 2021 league’s most valuable player.
He drained three triples as part of a 14-point quarter, taking the Magic on a dominant run to extend its lead to 90-75 late in the quarter.
It was a run the Falcons were unable to recover from, and one typical of the Magic’s ability to find its time to bury a team within a dog fight.
Up until that point little had separated the teams.
Hartmann (26 points) had been tough to slow down in the first half, getting to the hoop and using his his strength to finish.
However, the Falcons were similarly finding ways to score.
Matt Pyper regularly found his way to the line, scoring 11 of his 29 points from free throws, while Sam Senior was a constant threat from deep.
The scores were tied 44-44 midway through the second quarter, before a run sparked by Freeman opened the gap to nine, in the Magic’s favour.
But the Falcons got back to 55-51 at halftime, as Pyper began drawing fouls and the Magic offence dried up.
That continued for Pyper early in the third quarter, before Hughan’s period took the game away.
Senior began scoring freely in the fourth quarter for the Falcons, pulling it back to 95-85.
However, Freeman took over for the Magic at that point, closing out a high-scoring win.
In the early game, Varsity gave the defending champion St Kilda Saints a fright for three quarters, before the Saints pulled away to a comfortable win.
Varsity led 72-71 at the end of the third quarter, but was held to just two points in the fourth, as the Saints ran out 97-74 victors.
Michael Ruske led the Saints with 22 points, while Sautia Misa had 20.
Ryan Pringle top-scored for Varsity with 20.
In the late game the Magic Lions held off the City Rise Bombers in a lower-scoring affair.
Young guard Noah McDowall (21 points) was influential for the Lions down the stretch, generating the majority of their scoring to clinch a 66-63 win.
Trailing by three, with under two minutes to play, he hit a three-pointer to tie the scores, before making a tough finish through to contact to take the lead moments later.
Joseph Euphrat (20 points) pulled the Bombers back to within one, but McDowall closed the game out at the line.
