36 — Northern Territory News, Monday, November 30, 2009 www.ntnews.com.au

Cavs recover to trump DallasCLEVELAND: The Cleveland Cava-liers recovered from a lacklustreloss the previous day to beat theroad-tested Dallas Mavericks 111-95in the NBA yesterday.

Mo Williams made all seven of histhree-point attempts, and LeBronJames (pictured) scored 25 pointswith 12 assists as Cleveland prevailedin a clash of two divisional leaders.

Williams finished with 25 pointsfor the Cavs, who were beaten by theCharlotte Bobcats on Friday. DirkNowitzki scored 27 for Dallas.

In Salt Lake City, Carlos Boozer

had 26 points and 12 rebounds to lead

Utah to a 108-92 win over Portland

and its fifth victory in six games. In

Milwaukee, Vince Carter scored 19 of

his 25 points in the second half after

getting four stitches as Orlando

edged Milwaukee 100-98.In Oakland, California, Los

Angeles made it five

straight wins by thrashing

Golden State 130-97.I n W a s h i n g t o n ,

Charlotte had a 92-76

win over Washington.

PU

B:

NT

NE

WS

DA

TE

:3

0-N

OV

-20

09

PA

GE

:3

6C

OL

OR

:C

MY

K

Corletto’s battle to be fitSYDNEY: Liz Ellis Diamondaward winner Julie Corletto isbattling to be fit in time forAustralia’s netball tour of Britainnext February.

The 23-year-old goal defenderpicked up the top individual prizein Australian netball at thesport’s annual awards night inMelbourne on Saturday.

Form in both the ANZ Cham-pionship and Australian pro-grams was taken into considerat-ion and Corletto triumpheddespite missing Australia’s last

three Tests of the year against

England and Jamaica after under-

going an arthroscopy on both

knees in late September. The

Diamonds have a five-Test tour of

Britain in February of next yearand Corletto only resumedjogging last week.

‘‘I have to make surethat I do the best for myknees and whetherthat’s to go in Febru-ary or not, we will justhave to wait and see,’’she said.

Triple treat for Grantas Kookas crush Dutch

HAT-TRICK HERO: Australia’s Grant Schubert terrorised the Netherlands defenceyesterday. Picture: ANDREW BROWNBILL

By JACKIE EPSTEINinMelbourne

THE Kookaburras con-tinued their winning runyesterday by inflicting theNetherlands with theirworst ever Champions Tro-phy defeat.

A highlight of the 7-2thrashing was a first halfhat-trick from South Aust-ralian Grant Schubert.

The Dutch had previouslynever lost by more thanfour goals.

‘‘If you said to me two daysago you would have thesescores I’d be very delighted,’’said Kookaburras coachRic Charlesworth.

‘‘There were some goodthings, Schubert was good to-day and young Brent (Dancer)scored his first goal.

‘‘Everyone’s now played sothat’s good.

‘‘This is an important caul-dron for them to show andprove they can play atthis level.

‘‘If you aspire to play in theWorld Cup then performanceshere are a plus.’’

The Netherlands made anominous start by scoring froma penalty corner after justthree minutes.

But the Kookaburras wokefrom their slumber to go in athalf-time with a 5-1 lead.

‘‘I think we were a bitflattered,’’ Charlesworth said.

‘‘We got caught in the firstminute, that has to rectified.We went to sleep I think.

‘‘Maybe it was a good thingbecause then we played wellfor 20 minutes.

‘‘At 5-1 at half-time the gamedrifted a bit and we werepurposeless. We can be betterthan that and that’s the chal-lenge for us.’’

Charlesworth rated theopening 4-0 win over Korea asa six out of 10. He didn’t givethis win a rating but indicatedhe is still hoping for more.

‘‘When the other team getsno goal shots or penalty cor-ners then I’ll be happy,’’ he

said. ‘‘I have high expectationsof them but they have highexpectations of themselves.They work hard. They’re adiligent group.’’

Nathan Burgers was given arun as goalkeeper, replacingGeorge Bazeley, who kept aclean sheet against Korea.

Burgers was also impress-ive, while the defence againshowed poise.

Captain Jamie Dwyer, whoscored the side’s last goal witha stunning bullet strike, saidthere was strong competitionwithin the group.

‘‘That’s maybe what wewant,’’ he said.

‘‘The goalkeepers havep l a y e d t w o v e r y g o o dgames I think and there is ahard selection issue for theselectors. We want people tokeep performing.

‘‘We didn’t let them create asmany opportunities. Overallit’s always nice to getseven goals.’’

For Schubert it was a pleas-ing performance after hebounced back from the disap-pointment of missing theWorld Cup through injury.

The 29 year-old said itwas a goal to reach the2012 Olympics.

‘‘To score any goals for Aust-ralia is good and to do it in aChampions Trophy is evenbetter,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s a little bit differentbeing more on the experiencedside. I’m helping the youngerguys and giving them advice sowe’re blending together well.

‘‘At this point definitely itwill be a goal (to compete in2012). Still a few years to go anda lot can happen.’’

The Kookaburras are at thetop of the tournament ladder asthe only undefeated side. Theirthird game is against Englandtomorrow night.

AUSTRALIA 7 (Glenn Turner 19m, BrentDancer 22m pen, Grant Schubert 33m,34m, 8m, Luke Doerner 51m pen,Jamie Dwyer 61m) d NETHERLANDS 2

(Taeke Taekema 3m pen, RobbertKemperman 68m) at State Netball andHockey Centre.

Molik strikes rich veinPERTH: Alicia Molik’s tenniscomeback is on track afterbeating Olivia Rogowska inyesterday’s final of the Gold-fields St Ives Internationalin Kalgoorlie.

The former world No. 8gained a measure of revengeon Rogowska for beating herrecently in the final of thesatellite event at Esperance.

The first set went to a tie-

break but Molik won it 8-6,and then she controlled thesecond set over the No. 1 seedto win it 6-3.

Molik is in fine shape andform since emerging fromretirement in September.

The 28-year-old’s regionaltour will continue at Bendigoin Victoria this week, part ofher campaign to play in Janu-ary’s Australian Open.

Windsblow awayPike’s tiltat Vintage

ByGREGORMACTAGGART

STRONG northwesterlybreezes ensured the NSWOpen title hopes of Top Endgolf export Aaron Pike blewaway yesterday.

The 24-year-old was one ofmany players who crashedout of title contention due tothe horribly testingconditions at The Vintage inthe Hunter Valley.

Only three of the 55 playerswho contested yesterday’sfinal round broke par, one ofwhom, Leigh McKechnie,came from seven shots backat the start of the day to winthe $135,000 PGA Tour ofAustralasia event.

Pike, who played in thethird-last group, bore thebrunt of the gale-force windsand carded an 80, which,compared to the other hopesin title contention ahead ofthe final round, wasabout average.

To put things intoperspective, overnight leaderJason Norris went from a 64on Saturday to a 79 within thespace of 24 hours to finish in atie for fourth, while USPGATour player Nathan Green,who was also in titlecontention going into thefinal round, shot 80.

Defending champion AaronTownsend fared worse withan 83 and another playerpossessing extensiveAmerican experience, JamesNitties, signed for a 77.

But even he had to becontent with second placebehind McKechnie, the36-year-old battler fromNewcastle, who sealed thebiggest win of his golf careerand earned a cheque of $20,250.

As for Pike, the 80 meant hefinished at six-over in a tie for24th and lamenting a secondsuccessive expensiveSunday afternoon that sawthe Palmerston productearn $1309.50.

Next on the big right-handers agenda — theAustralian Open, startingThursday.

Ferguson tips twomore top years for GiggsPORTSMOUTH: Sir AlexFerguson believes he can getat least another two years offive-star service from RyanGiggs after the evergreenWelshman scored his 100thPremier League goal in Man-chester United’s 4-1 win overPortsmouth yesterday.

Wayne Rooney’s first hat-trick for United since October

2006 laid the foundations forthe champions’ victory atFratton Park, but the artistryof Giggs, who curled in a latefree-kick, was as significant.

‘‘Happy Birthday Ryan,’’Ferguson said of Giggs, whoturned 36 at the weekend.

‘‘He has had it 36 times inhis life, wait until he gets to 67— I think he will be retired

by then. He is an exceptionalplayer — a rarity. He will playfor two years yet.’’

Elsewhere, Tottenhamgrabbed a point at Aston Villathanks to a 77th-minuteequaliser from Andy Dawsonto stay three points clear oftheir opponents in fourth.

Manchester City had tosettle for their seventh suc-

cessive draw, finishing 1-1against Hull, while West Hambeat Burnley 5-3 at UptonPark and Wigan bouncedback from their 9-1 mauling atTottenham with a 1-0 winover Sunderland.

Damien Duff rescued apoint for Fulham againstBolton, while Blackburn andStoke drew 0-0.