Rapid: Sharks finish strong to sink Bulls

The Southland Sharks started strongly and finished in that mode as they wrapped up the Round 9 action with a 40-28 defeat of the Franklin Bulls in Invercargill.

With Dane Bertinshaw in good touch, the Sharks scored the first 11 points and were ahead 19-10 at the interval.

The half-time break worked in favour of the Bulls and Payton Hughes in particular. The Bulls’ all-time leading scorer in Rapid League drained a trio of threes in the third as his team closed to within two points, 25-23, with a quarter to play.

Back-to-back scores from Zion Anderson propelled the Bulls into a 28-27 lead, but from there it was all Sharks as they scored 13 unanswered points in the final two minutes.

A Will Leger dunk launched the run, with a Quake Webster buzzer-beating three the exclamation mark.

Southland Sharks 40 – Dane Bertinshaw 11pts, Quake Webster 9pts, Will Leger 8pts & 4stls, Tautoko Wynyard 6pts, Tobias Cameron 4pts, 5rebs, 3asts & 4stls

Franklin Bulls 28 – Payton Hughes 15pts, Zion Anderson 5pts