The firepower of O’Neill, McMorran and Ravenhill guide Barking Owls to victory as Sonics sink to fourth loss

The tall firepower of Barking Owls was too much for Sonics to handle in round four of the Albany Basketball Association men’s A-grade competition, with the Owls emerging 12-point victors on Tuesday night. The Owls notched their second straight victory of the season, 66-54 with tall trio Jordi O’Neill, Hamish McMorran and Lucas Ravenhill combining for 50 points. After winning last season’s premiership, Sonics slipped to their fourth straight loss as they could not contain their much bigger opponents. The Owls started with a flurry of baskets to take control of the game inside the opening five minutes before Sonics found their feet. However, five straight points from O’Neill pushed the margin to double figures for the first time. Sonics rallied but the Owls finished the first half full of momentum as they stretched their lead to 14 at the main break. Both sides traded baskets in the opening 10 minutes of the second half as the margin hovered around 10 points before Sonics shot themselves back into the contest. The margin came in to three points at one stage but the Owls responded once again. With five minutes left to play their lead had blown back out into double figures and they were able to tighten the screws to secure their second win of the season. O’Neill dropped 12 points in the second half to finish with a game-high 21 while McMorran was pivotal throughout the contest and finished with 18. Ravenhill added 11 while Justin Benson was strong in defence. Sonics centre Xavier Brenton-Reed tried his best to battle with the opposition’s big men and led his team with 12 points. Despite strong shooting displays from David Arthur (10 points) Liam Murdock (10) and Ben Brown (10) they remain winless. Infernos handed Ambassadors their first loss of the season despite the latter coming on strong in the second half after being down by 10 at the main break. Lewis Bosch dropped 19 points in the 51-47 victory and Kye Griffiths added eight to help Infernos secure their third win. Callum Dixon and Todd Kniuman each scored 12 points for Ambassadors in their first defeat. Denmark remain undefeated after a comfortable 60-35 victory over Raiders under-18s on the back of a dominant first half. Luke Wilson led all scorers with 20 and Reagan Hutchinson chipped in with 13 while Gabriel Ang was Raiders’ top scorer with 10.