Tony Ronaldson's all-court game paced South East Melbourne as the Magic won easily in the Whitlam Centre contest. Ronaldson finished with 22 points, 11 boards and eight assists and shackled Illawarra import Clayton Ritter in the third quarter, when the Magic broke open the game. Ritter (33 points) had 22 points in the first half. "The key to the game was the patch where we held Ritter scoreless," South East Melbourne coach Brian Goorjian said. "We knew we had to do something about him, and Ronaldson worked hard and did the job on him. They relied on Ritter too much and in the end we had too many avenues to score from them to stop us."
South East Melbourne: Tolbert 23, Ronaldson 22, Anstey 19, Dorge 17, Parkinson 13, Kelly 13, Drmic 10, Mackinnon 4, Moore 2.
