Neither Manly, Bankstown or Sutherland made the journey but we were able to have a good look at Hornsby, Penrith, Alexandria and Norths.
PENRITH
The Panthers may have been a small team but they played with plenty of heart.
However, there was not much they could do against our complete control of the boards. They also struggled to cope with our full court pressure defence which constantly forced turnovers.
At the end of the first quarter Penrith were down 15-0 but they hadn't given up.
Late in the second quarter they hit a few outside shots and picked up some free throws after driving into the heart of the key. Despite getting a score on the board they were unable to stop us, particularly down low.
Brane, Will and Addam scored down low, while Arran decided he would be a point guard for a game and came away with nine assists.
On the outside Jay was on fire, dropping 12 points, many from the top of the key.
As the score continued to grow, our lock-down defence kept Penrith out. In the third quarter the Panthers did not score one point from the field.
In the fourth quarter and with the score at 61-16, Brett and Delmas decided to work through some variations on our offensive plans. Penrith scored as we worked through the new offence but we still finished with a 62 point difference coming home 87-25.
GOSFORD 2
Canberra were supposed to send up a team but when they pulled out at the last minute Gosford's division two team stepped up to fill the void.
Not surprisingly this was a blowout game.
Again we dominated the boards, again we got an extraordinary number of steals with Mark snatching eight by himself and again we had an opportunity to work on our offensive patterns.
We finished this game with an 89-17 win.
NEWCASTLE
Newcastle had length but their big men were too slight and lacked the skills of our own.
We were able to dominate them in all facets of the game. By half time it was 52-8 and Newcastle would only score another 9 as we went on to win 89-17. To this point, Hills had yet to be tested.
HORNSBY
The humidity disrupted the Hornsby game, causing a number of stoppages with the refs having to regularly wipe the floor when players slipped and fell.
The slippery conditions didn't stop Luke who showed what defence at the top of the key was all about in this game. He was constantly picking pockets off the dribble and snatching clean steals after using his acceleration to get into into the passing lane.
He set up may of the fast breaks that gave us the easy buckets later in the game.
We needed it early as we struggled to hit baskets, often shooting off balance as the Hornsby defence got quickly to their players. We came away with just 12 points in the first quarter despite plenty of shot opportunities.
In the second quarter we started to find our pace but Hornsby continued to hurry us through our plays and they fought hard for loose balls.
But in the fourth quarter we overwhelmed them, accelerating to a final score of 71-20.
NORTHS - SEMI FINAL
Just a minute into the game Norths called a time-out after we dropped in two easy goals. The first went to a streaking Mitch off a long pass from Addam. The second from Will who had dropped down to the low block and picked up an easy pass from Mitch who saw that Norths had left a mouse in the house to guard our big man.
After the time out North started to isolate defenders and work down low but had problems completing. Some loose passes from both sides led to a strong of turnovers before we settled again. We started picking up points as we stepped in for weak-side rebounds and picked up some simple lay-ups.
A pleasing component of our defence was that Norths could not get any fast breaks as Hills got quickly back on defence every time.
A lucky three-pointer towards the end of the first quarter kept Norths in the game and we finished it ahead 13-8. A close score but we still looked like we were in control.
It was more of the same during the second quarter although it started to become apparent that Norths were struggling to defend off the dribble with Jayden, Jay and Mitch all penetrating deep into the key. But the scoreline was still relatively tight at half time with Hills up 33-25.
However, our classic third quarter surge kicked into action and Norths leapt ahead 44-31.
That surge broke Norths back and, despite not playing one of our best games, Hills came away with a convincing 61-41 victory that put us in to the grand final.
However that grand final was almost called off when the Gosford courts looked like they might become unplayable because of the humidity. But it wasn't going to stop Gosford or Hills, who had a long history against each other and decided to play to really test themselves against quality opponents.
GOSFORD - GRAND FINAL
This was a cracker of a game played in sultry conditions that had the ref spending a good half of the game wiping the ball and the floor.
We also lost our most aggressive defender Thomas in the second quarter to a nasty sprained ankle after he came down hard on an offensive rebound.
The game was physical, fast and skilled. Early on Gosford used good ball movement to get behind our defence and with back cuts and baseline cuts got open looks close to the basket.
Jay returned it in kind with a number of crucial drives and on one particular occasion as our big men moved out to the three point line taking their markers with them, he ankle-broke his defender, made a penetrating drive and finished with a layup one step ahead of the rushing defence.
We hurt ourselves at times in this game by not boxing out on the defensive end, giving Gosford second and third shots and they often made us pay.
The game stayed tight the whole way until our usual third quarter surge.
First quarter: Hills 13 - Gosford 8
Second quarter: Hills 21- Gosford 18
Third quarter: Hills 37 - Gosford 26
Against other teams this would have been a comfortable buffer but against Gosford it was anything but.
Gosford kicked up the defence and it took a great fake and turnaround jumpshot from Mitch to score the first points in the final quarter. In the meantime we had brought out the great wall again - Arran, Brane and Addam.
Addam worked particularly well on the defensive end, boxing out and often only allowing Gosford one shot and getting the team moving with good outlet passes.
Gosford were quick to get back and we had to work our half court offence but Hills were remarkably patient and worked the ball slowly to set up plays and take good shots.
Early in the final quarter Gosford changed up its defence and tried to get a two-man trap with full court pressure. Fortunately we were able to avoid the trap and made strong plays to the basket through the broken defence.
Brane was quick to get to the low block when the trap was broken and it paid dividends with a foul on a missed shot. A little later Jay made a strong baseline drive and put in a simple basket unopposed.
Next time up Addam found himself with a mouse on his back and a perfect high arc pass from Jay turned into an easy basket.
Gosford scored with foul shots after a strong drive but got jammed up by our bigs who made successive stops before Will got down low and took a great lofted pass from Mitch over his defender for an easy basket.
Piece by piece we were moving away.
When Mitch made a steal and scored on a full length of the court fast-break, he sealed the game.
We came away with a 51-34 win and stamped our authority on the Classic. That said, Gosford were down a key player and are undoubtedly going to take it right to us when we next meet.
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