South Spotlight | Tigers beat Cobras for fourth straight

Featured image: Michael Farnell @sportsimageryau

The front court pairing of Jack Purchase and Josh Sykes combined for 39 points and 10 rebounds with the Melbourne Tigers making it four straight NBL1 South wins with the 98-79 Sunday victory at home to the Kilsyth Cobras.

The Tigers had won three straight coming into the Sunday clash at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre including on Anzac Day with the 12-point road victory against the Ringwood Hawks.

Kilsyth were playing for the first time since losing a thriller to the Frankston Blues last Saturday and for the first half it was a tight contest with the Tigers only leading by three at quarter-time and two at the half.

Melbourne then took control in the second half outscoring the Cobras 53 points to 36 to score the 19-point win and improve to 5-1 on the season with four victories on the trot.

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The Tigers made it a focus to go to their front court inside for a lot of the game and it paid dividends with 54 of their 98 points coming inside the paint while they only got up 19 three-point shots from their 76 field goal attempts.

They also pulled down 15 offensive rebounds, had just nine turnovers and forced the Cobras into 19 of them on the way to taking an extra 21 shot attempts on the way to the 19-point victory on their home floor in front of a packed Anzac Day long weekend crowd.

Jack Purchase top-scored for Melbourne with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists with Josh Sykes having his best game in Tigers colours with 19 points, five boards, two assists and two steals.

George Blagojevic also had 18 points, four assists, three steals and three rebounds, Tom Wilson 16 points, five assists and four boards, and Kai Garnaut 10 points and eight rebounds.

Kilsyth are now 3-3 on the season following the loss in their lone game of the Anzac Day weekend with Dillon Stith top-scoring with 17 points and six rebounds but he had just seven points after quarter-time.

Adrian Tomada added 14 points and three assists for the Cobras, Chris Payton Jr 12 points, four rebounds and three assists on 5/6 shooting, and Hamish MacDonald eight points and four rebounds.

The Tigers were coming off a big Anzac Day road win over Ringwood with Kilsyth having not played since a loss to the Frankston Blues last Saturday, and the two teams put on an entertaining opening quarter.

By the end of it the Tigers were narrowly leading 25-22 with Jack Purchase and Josh Sykes combining for 15 points while they got to the foul line nine times to six and also forced Kilsyth into the five turnovers.

Dillon Stith had 10 points to keep Kilsyth in touch and it remained a tight battle throughout the second quarter with the Cobras putting up 21 points to the 20 from the Tigers.

It was in the third frame when Melbourne made their move with 32 points to 17 on the back of shooting 13/22 from the field and 3/6 from behind the arc to open up a lead as big as 17 as a result.

MVP Tom Wilson was significant to the Tigers taking charge and then the lead got out to 20 in the final period before they went on to complete the job on the 19-point victory to make it four straight.

The Cobras will now play host to the Ballarat Miners on Saturday night while the Tigers will attempt to make it five straight at home to the Knox Raiders next Sunday afternoon.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | ANZAC ROUND

MELBOURNE TIGERS 98 (Purchase 20, Sykes 19, Blagojevic 18)

KILSYTH COBRAS 79 (Stith 17, Tomada 14, Payton Jr 12)