The Gold Coast Blaze opened their official preseason campaign with an impressive 98-81 win over the Anyang KTG Kites at the Logan Indoor Sports Centre.
In the first official hit out for the squad, the Blaze showed impressive chemistry in their win over the visitors from South Korea.
Without Boomer Adam Gibson and new imports Bennett Davison and James Maye, the Blaze showed off the depth they will need in order to win a championship this year.
James Harvey and Anthony Petrie were the best for the Blaze, with the skipper pouring in a game high 23 points to lead all scorers. Petrie just missed out on a triple-double with 21 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists, the highlight of which was an emphatic dunk early in the 3rd quarter that brought the crowd to their feet.
Pero Vasiljevic continued his very impressive preseason with an 18 point haul. Vasiljevic set the tone for the Blaze when he took an Anthony Petrie pass for an ‘alley oop’ slam dunk for the first points of the game.
Chris ‘Bubbles’ Goulding was also in fine form, with 15 points at an incredible 71% shooting. Goulding did a fine job of filling in at the point guard position and was unlucky to foul out late in the game.
While the Blaze led from wire to wire, the Koreans showed tenacity throughout the contest and used superb ball movement to keep themselves in the hunt. Imports Gavin Edwards and David Simon were best for the Kites, with 15 and 19 points respectively.
The unsung hero for the Blaze was new recruit Tom Garlepp. Garlepp showed why he was such a highly prized junior prospect with a solid all round game, adding 12 points to the total. He played impressive defence, had a resounding rejection on the Kites’ Simon and even ran the point for a number of possessions.
Wright was keen to recruit skilled big men to the Gold Coast this year, and he has two very good ones in Garlepp and highly successful veteran Stephen Hoare.
The Blaze got good use of their development and practice squad players, with Shaun Gleeson, Karl Nilsson, Brendan Teys and Jaydan Tom all featuring throughout.
The Blaze continue their preseason on Saturday, September 18th against the Cairns Taipans. Gold Coast basketball fans can get nostalgic while taking in the first NBL game of any kind at Carrara Stadium in quite some time. See the Blaze website for more information closer to the date.
Click here to check out the Fiba Live Stats from the game.
