Thaddeous Delaney pulled down 20 boards for the Bullets in the 95-80 win.

Woodberry Scores 33 in Bullets Win

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 1998 at 10:31 PM ET

The Brisbane Bullets moved to fifth place on the NBL ladder with a 15 point win over expansion club, the West Sydney Razorbacks. The Razorbacks came to Brisbane confident of beating the Bullets, a 2-1 start having them in the top 4. Early on though both teams looked very rusty, only scoring 33 points combined in the first quarter. The Bullets offence was largely ineffective due to the early struggles of Woodberry. The Razorbacks were still in a 'feeling out' pattern with derek Rucker making his return to the NBL after a three game absence due to injury. The Bullets got the better of the first half with Rodger Smith and Woodberry doing a job on Rucker defensively and Thaddeous Delaney crashing the offensive boards. Woodberry did get going in the second quarter, scoring 11 points to help the Bullets to a 42-38 halftime advantage.

The third quarter was not a good one for Brisbane, West Sydney finding themselves with endless room for open three's. Simon Dwight and John Rillie were getting the better of the Bullets, only Woodberry and Delaney showing any resistance in the third quarter. The Bullets shot the ball very poorly from the line and struggled to stop the Razorbacks late in the term, falling behind by 3 at three quarter time. Steve Woodberry had started to heat up in the third term, scoring 10 points. In the fourth he simply took over. He nailed several key outside shots and he was back to his old self with a few tough runners over shot blocking ace Simon Dwight. But the Bullets still only lead by 2 with 4:00 to go, Derek Rucker was the main reason behind this, his penetration causing the Bullets all sorts of problems. But in the final minutes the Razorbacks shot themselves in the foot in an embarrasing display. They turned the ball over three times in the last minute and were outscored 13-0 in the last three minutes. And they had there noses rubbed in it when Steve Woodberry crossed over Leigh Carlson and nailed a long three in his face to makeit a 95-80 Bullets victory. Woodberry finished with an impressive 33 points, Thaddeous Delaney had 10 points and 20 boards, and Rodger Smith had a season high 16 points. For the Razorbacks Simon Dwight had 24 and John Rillie 18.