Saints roll Bulls in Wellington

Saints roll Bulls in Wellington

The undefeated Wellington Saints had another convincing win at home, this time against the Franklin Bulls, 111 - 82. 

The Bulls started poorly with a few turnovers, and the Saints pounced on these converting them into points. Franklin pulled it back courtesy of a couple Saints turnovers, before Zico Coronel called for a timeout. 

A Bulls three then tied the game up briefly as big Romaro Gill flushed a couple of lob passes. The score sat at 26 - 20 at the end of the first as the Saints offense looked better early on. 

The visitors kept it to a four-point deficit though as both teams continued to make mistakes. 

Gill was having one of his better games, as he and his teammates hit the offensive glass hard, he was able to convert his opportunities into second-chance points. His size advantage was making things hard against the Bulls lack of true big men. 

The Saints all of a sudden caught fire though. They contained the Bulls best player Josh Selby on one end, and scored heavily on the other via corner threes from veteran Troy Mclean and Kerwin Roach. This pushed the lead to ten. 

It was the two Saints imports leading the way in the second as they both had double digits. Their combination in the pick and roll was killing the Bulls as the lead ballooned to 17. 

Half-time score 55 - 38.

The Bulls started the second half well courtesy of a Nick Fee three, but a turnover led to a Taane Samuel three-point play the old-fashioned way on the other end. A highlight play by Kerwin Roach, courtesy of a savage dunk, had the lead near 20 again.

Third quarters are where the Saints opponents have fallen away for most of the season, and it was their accuracy on both ends that had them up 19 halfway through the third. 

Roach was hot from inside and out as they kept their foot on the throttle; he had 20 in the game in the third as he called his own shot on many occasions. Prewster started to get going too, as the Saints put on a dunk show, constantly getting to the rack. 

Down 25 with one quarter to go, the Bulls needed something special in the 4th. Prewster had other ideas as he scored and assisted teammates at will as the lead pushed out to 30. 

The Saints continued to share the scoring around as Coach Coronel utilized his bench. They kept the foot down and the lead around 30 as they locked in their fifth win in a row. 

Final score 111 - 82. 

Key stats 

Kerwin Roach Jr, 22 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. 

Romaro Gill, 17 points on 7 of 8 shooting, and 5 huge offensive rebounds. 

Tohi Smith-Milner, 14 points, 3 steals.