Lattrell Matthews in monster 51pt haul as Tigers sink Magic to earn Broome basketball finals berth

Tigers star Lattrell Matthews was again a dominant presence on court, sinking three-pointers for fun and proving near-untouchable on breakaways on his way to a monster 51-point haul in his side’s 47-point drubbing of the Magic on Wednesday night. Jahn-Taye Lawford (12 points) and Raquell Bin Rashid (14 points) were also handful and worked well with Matthews all night in the high-scoring affair. The Magic went toe-to-toe with the hot Tigers early; Leroy Pigram in particular looked threatening in getting his side off to a strong start and at one stage they found themselves ahead 7-3. But the Tigers clicked into gear and looked polished in attack, rarely missing a scoring opportunity. By quarter time the Tigers were ahead 25-12 and, after a good second-half fight from Magic, the favourites blew the score out to 89-42 by the final buzzer. Matthews’ haul left his points tally at 327 for the season, more than double the next most prolific player, Khan John (154) Earlier in the night Gantheaume Pointers’ win over Cool Running was not enough to help them sneak into the final four. Needing a big percentage boosting win to make the cut, the Pointers looked shaky early as Cool Running piled on early points. Wayne Edgar (11 points) rallied for Gantheaume and by half time and turned the score around to have his side ahead 12-21. They pushed further in front after the siren; James Hay-Hendry (14 points) bookended the third term with two-pointers to push the lead out to 14 points and give the Pointers a sniff at finals action. But a late surge from Cool Running pegged the final score back to a 44-36 Pointers win, leaving the Pointers hoping for a heavy loss from the Misfits against the MpBoyz, which did not eventuate.