Essington Cannons young guns secure first win of the Darwin Basketball League over Eagles

TEAM cohesion shone through as Essington Cannons scored their first win of the 2021 Darwin Basketball League, 81-76, over Eagles.

Essington Cannons captain Aaron Balkwill was a constant source of rebounds for his side.

TEAM cohesion shone through as Essington Cannons scored their first win of the 2021 Darwin Basketball League, 81-76, over Eagles.

Cannons, without departing go-to shooter and star import Elijah Barbour, leaned on the potential of their crop of young guns. And that paid off, with Matteo Materazzo (15 points) setting the tone early on with a handy three-pointer.

Abraham Stephen-Bolaji (20 points) also made a significant impression on the scoreboard, pushing his side to an early lead.

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But Eagles didn’t let Cannons settle into a lead, surging through the middle quarters to take the lead.

Will Tollner (19 points) and Tully Hemsley (18 points) played the full game for Eagles and were pivotal in everything that went right for the side.

William Schoneveld (16 points) also helped lift Eagles to what, at one stage, seemed a comfortable lead.

But as the game wore on the rebounds fell more in Cannons’ favour, with big Aaron Balkwill (13 points, 21 rebounds) dominating the boards.

It was then that Maverick Falzon (29 points) was able to counter on the fast break and see his side edge away from Eagles in the dying minutes.

Cannons captain Balkwill was proud of the efforts shown by his young squad, noting that their growing cohesion was key to their first victory.

“It’s a relief to get the win. We’ve been grinding away knowing the result would come eventually,” Balkwill told the NT News.

“EB unfortunately leaving allowed a lot of the young boys to step up and I’m so proud of how we stuck at it, even when we fell behind.

“Rebounding was crucial. It’s difficult being an undersized team, but the guys stuck at it, where in the past few games we would have probably seen the score blow out when we went behind.

“It can be difficult getting numbers at training, but we’ve started making progress there and as the season goes on we will get better and better as our cohesion improves.

“That was probably the first real glimpse of us playing a proper team game and that’s what we will continue to build on.”

Meanwhile, Lightning (Craig Martin, 33 points) continued its strong start to the 2021 season with an 81-56 win over Uni Rebels (Mixon Laurel, 30 points).