NBL1 Central teams beware “Hawke-eye” and Electric Elliott in second COE contests

Proctor not in the house: Sadly star COE guard won't be in the house this weekend on duty for higher levels for the Boomers, but there are plenty of excellent talents to watch for. Photo by AllStar Photos/Kelly Barnes

NBL1 Wildcard Games

Centre of Excellence vs Norwood Flames

Men – Saturday 16/07/2022 7:15pm at the Firedome

Centre of Excellence vs Sturt Sabres 

Men – Sunday 17/07/2022 2:00pm at the Cave

Centre of Excellence Men

The COE Men will be missing some key pieces in Tyrese Proctor (Boomers duties at Asia Cup), Alex Toohey (NBA Global Academy Games and rumoured but not confirmed college signing for Duke, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Villanova or Gonzaga) and possibly Jensen Bradtke, Josh Ojianwuna (NBA GAG then Baylor Bears), Bol Dengdit (NBA GAG then Portland Pilots) but that will not make them any less a tough unit to compete against. The Men are 10-3 this season having only lost to Perry Lakes Hawks (NBL1 West), Logan Thunder (NBL1 North) and the Forestville Eagles. That last loss to the Hawks saw Andrew Ferguson drop 22 points and 12 rebounds as they dominated a lineup minus Proctor, Toohey, Bradtke, Ojianwuna and Dengdit.

The COE Men will be led once again by U20 AJC star Rory Hawke from the Townsville Heat averaging 17 points shooting 52.2 percent from the field and 37.2 percent beyond the arc and 7.4 rebounds with stepping up Ethan Elliot originally of the Warwick Senators averaging 11.6 points and Evan Kilminster of the Charleston Men’s college basketball program at 11.5 points at 42.9 percent from beyond the arc. Scoring guard Elliot has had scores of 14, 9 and 12 and Kilminster 20, 38 in the last four games*.

Likely matchups for Hawke are Matt Lycett and Joel Spear with length again deterring the shooting ability while Kilminster can light up quickly and will need to be watched by Daniel Webber and Jack Turnbull. The COE Men average 76.6 points per game, 16.2 assists, 41.8 rebounds and shoot 45 percent on average from the field per game. Ball movement and finding the perimeter shooters has become the strength of this group after earlier using glass and inside presence with Robbie McKinlay’s lineup earlier in the series. It’ll be tough to knock them off but with the COE lacking the stars of the start of the season, I think the Flames at least can split it for SA 1-1.

*Editors Note: No statistics were recorded publicly between Lakeside Lightning and COE on Saturday 9/07/2022