In a mouth-watering matchup, United were the away victors against leaders of Great 8 Jindera Strikers 95-82 at Jindera Coliseum and extended their buffer at the top of Big 8 to two games over the Belmore Aces.
Jindera were lucky not to lose their top spot after the Knobheads had an incredible upset loss to the 4th placed go aussie at home. Sparrows Curse made up valuable ground on the leaders with a solid 21 point win over Glenvale (114-93) at home, as did the Broady Suns with an equally impressive 25 point win over the struggling poon hunters (98-73).
The Big 8 looks the much stronger conference this season, evidenced alone by the sheer volume of points the bottom four of the Great 8 have conceded already thus far, 1254.5 on average compared to 1090.5 per game against Big 8 bottom four, a whopping differential of 164 points per game!
Back to the top-of-the-league clash between United and Jindera, it was United PG Darren Cunningham who stole the show, amassing 38 points on a costly 13-30 shooting, adding 9 assists, 7 boards, 3 steals and a solitary block in what was a standout night considering his primo partner in crime Marlou Lames was missing through injury. Giardulli aptly villed the void at SG, and United enjoyed a +20 differential while he was on the court.
PF Eldridge Brownlee and C Luka Sikošek were in beast mode, amassing 27 boards between them, Brownlee grabbing 15 himself. It must be said his opposition number Ben Lane was even more beasty swallowing 18 of his own boards and providing a constant headache for Coach Stazza.
United will be looking forward to the All-Star break after they meet Broady Suns at home this weekend, unveiling their latest expansion to the Madhouse on Madison in the process. Then following the All-Star break, four of their next five opponents are top 4 seeds in their respective conferences. It promises to be a season-defining run for the current league leaders.