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New Zealand edge Wildcats in a thriller. 96 – 94
The Breakers didn’t win this game, the Wildcats lost it, and if you watched the game, it’s hard to disagree. With scores so close in the dying minutes and both teams running hot it wasn’t a case of winning, it was a case of losing. The first team to miss a shot was going to lose it, and the Wildcats did that......... twice. Kevin Lisch missed a good look from beyond the arc and Knight missed one under basket as he was falling down. Kevin Braswell however hit two clutch shots that got the Breakers over the line.
The Cats came out all guns blazing looking to quickly forget last week’s dismal loss to the 36ers. The Breakers dug deep at three quarter time and came home strong, Kevin Braswell leading the way with 21 points. Abercrombie and CJ Bruton both had 17. Shawn Redhage hasn’t had the greatest success against the Breakers in recent history but lead the way for the Cats with 26 points including going 16-18 from the charity stripe.
Kevin Lisch finished with 21and was on fire from beyond the 3pt line, Thomas Abercrombie proved that he will more than likely not be around the NBL for long. The young Breaker showed his skills and athleticism will more than likely see him plying his trade overseas, a European team will pay big money for the young star Tall Black, which could see the NBL lose another young up and coming star.
Possibly the best matchup and most interesting moments in the game came in the clash between Wildcat young gun Jesse Wagstaff and lock for first team All Ranga along with Luke Schenscher, that being import Gary Wilkinson. Wilkinson and Wagstaff were caught in a few situations where locking arms, elbows and god knows what else left a bit of bad blood between the 2, Wilkinson seemed to be clearly frustrated at Wagstaff, perhaps because Redhage was taking him to school and packing him some play lunch, or perhaps someone may have said he looked like an unlit match stick.
Regardless, it was a great matchup and the Not So Big Red is solid low post guy who may help the Breakers more as he gets used to the NBL game style
CBAB is unsure whether the fact that a team cannot call a time out on the court is a bad thing. Down the stretch the Breakers were deliberately missing free throws to win the game as the Wildcats would have to bring the ball up the full court with little time left. We aren’t entirely convinced that a rule that encourages players to miss free throws is a good thing. One thing we do know is that the court at North Shore arena is ugly.
Hawks come from behind. Beat Crocs by 1. 71-70
After trailing by three points at the last change the Hawks did some soul searching and had enough fuel in the tank to get over the Crocs.
Gabe Freeman substitutes in when scores are tied with 10 seconds to go in the game and promptly turns the ball over and commits a foul to put Gary “The Blur” Ervin on the line. After hitting the first free throw Ervin ‘misses’ the second, time expires and the Hawks get the W. Hmm, didn’t we just write a paragraph on missed free throws?
Ervin has settled into the Hawks roster nicely scoring 25 points, Larry Davidson and Glen Saville were subpar by their standards and Oscar Forman finished with 12 and did something other than shoot the ball (he was the Hawks second leading scorer) and lead his team in rebounding with 7, we know, we know, we have said many times he needs to rebound more at his size, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
Luke Schenscher proved too big for the Hawks to handle, he finished with 19 points and 9 boards, the rest of the Crocs were pretty stock exchange. The rest of Luke’s team mates forgot to show up on the scoresheet, even El Capitan and all interview first teamer Russell Hinder had a bad shooting night going 1/6 from the field and only grabbing 2 rebounds, very unlike the Croc Captain and not likely to happen again, when your second top scorer goes for 9 points, it probably just wasn’t your night to begin with.
Taipans 85 – Adelaide 74
The Taipans took the court wearing pink but we have to ask, haven’t we seen this before? All we are saying is that great minds think alike and who would have thought there is a great mind in Cairns? Well maybe Alex Loughton, but even that is questionable.
Leading for only a moment in the first quarter the 36ers were blinded by the pink onslaught and could never really find any form. Cairns looked after the ball by not passing it and as a team mustered only 7 assists. To put it into perspective, Rhys Cater had 8 assists himself.
Big Al continues to lead the way for the Taipans with 20 points but did only manage 2 rebounds which is not something you expect from one of the quality power forwards in the league, Ayinde Ubaka scored 16 and Ian Crosswhite had a huge game with 17 points and 9 boards. A positive for the Taipans was Daniel Dillon in 20 minutes of court time had 11 points, 7 rebounds and was 2/2 from beyond the 3pt arc, but a huge negative was another poor performance from highly acclaimed Phil Jones, who seems to not be able to find his shooting touch at all and seems to be lost in the wilderness, somebody needs to find Phil and tell him he gets paid to make shots, time to make good before you cash that cheque buddy.
Adam Ballinger went for 16 points 7 rebounds and 3 blocks for the 36ers, another workman like performance that we have come to expect from the one they simply refer to as “Balls”, Troy De Vries had 12 points 7 rebounds and 4 assists but had a very stock exchange performance from beyond 3pt line going 2/7, something we believe is not going to happen very often, Jeff Dowdell chipped in with 10 points and 6 rebounds and Brad Hill also had 10 points.
Perth rout Melbourne 91 – 66
After dropping their first two games the well travelled Wildcats could finally see their ten days on the road coming to an end, and it couldn’t come soon enough, talk about a tough start to the seaso, when you are defending champs trying to repeat, and after one mediocre game, one solid game that was lost when it shouldn’t have been, the Cats had a mission in their last game of the trip before coming home and did it in spectacular style....… albeit for them, not the Tigers.
Melbourne recruited big for this season and have been named “The Great Wall of Tiger”, but with great height comes an immense lack of speed, mobility and ability play transition defence. The Wildcats simply ran rings around the ‘Lite’n’Easy’ Tigers. It is no secret that Melbourne have struggled to use their height so far in the season but the hard part is who is to blame? The personnel or the coach? Seems like Coach Al’s “shuffle” offence shuffled off when Christ Anstey retired.
What the Tiger’s failed to do was protect the ball and as a result they turned the ball over 31 times. That’s more turnovers than the Tigers had rebounds and is simply not good enough at this level, especially when you have a team with multiple 7 footers who are bigger than any other team in the history of the league and also had 1 block between them in a combined 98+ minutes of court time.
Damian Martin played an absolute scorcher, scoring 21 points (his new career high), 10 boards, 3 steals, three blocks and 3 assists, Adam Gibson must be cringing in his boots about his spot on the Boomers squad with Damo playing like this, seems Brett Brown may have played the wrong guard at the World Championships. Skipper Shawn Redhage again was prominent on the scoreboard and showing it from any range finishing with 17 points, Kevin Lisch had a mediocre shooting night but dished 7 assists, Matty Knight (who still seems to be slightly hampered by the hip injury) dropped 13 points as the Cats one and only man in the middle.
The Melbourne Tigers…...... Very stock exchange, even stock exchange may be too good of a description for how utterly badly they were pummeled.
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| Tiger's fans feel a change a coming |
Blaze win in OT, Blaze 94 – Crocs 90
For the second time in as many games, Townsville let one slip and another game in this round went to the wire, at least in regulation time. The Crocs were stymied as they could only look on as the Blaze, lead by our old mate Wortho, stormed back to force overtime.
Granted this was the second game for the Crocs this week but they should have really closed this one out. Giving up 23 points in the final quarter whilst chipping in with 11 of you own is not good enough in league that is destined to be as competitive this year as it was last year. Losing games like this will hurt your chances of making the post season.
Russell Hinder came out and produced a more efficient game than his previous stinker with 11 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and a block, more of his team mates came to play in this game, with Blalock dropping 18 points, PC with 14 points, Michael Cedar 17 points and going 5/7 from 3pt range and Gabe Freeman with 14 points and 7 rebounds, a much more all around team performance from the Crocs, only problem is that the great team play didn’t transition into a win.
Wortho got the welcome back to the NBL party he deserved with 26 points and 6 boards while Petrie chipped in with 17 at 78% shooting, the pool cleaner twins Harvey and Goulding had 13 a piece (each only nailing 1 from 3pt land) and Adam Gibson, we shake our head and say Gibbo Gibbo Gibbo, you had 14 points but shot.................well.....
The Blaze rallied in overtime to steal a win that the Crocs will be furious they gave up, but that’s basketball they say, you have to play until the final buzzer sounds.
Can’t Buy a Damn Thing Award
If it weren’t for the Tigers efforts Brad Robbins and Drew Williamson would have gone to battle for this one. Robbo had 5 turnovers and 3 fouls in eight and a half minutes of action and Drew had 2 fouls and nothing else in 6 minutes in the same game. We know he got belted by a Breaker screen so we went easy on him, he may still be concussed, he ran into the screen so hard that a bigger hit hasn’t been seen since Ike hit Tina.
The Tigers win this for their amazing ability to turn the ball over. There was absolutely no pass foolish enough to pass up as they piled the turnovers on their way for 31 for the game.
Gimme my Change award
Damian Martin was just everywhere on Sunday slapping the ball away in passing lanes and making life tough for the Tigers, we heard rumours TJ Campbell has even developed a nervous twitch and has been waking up in a cold sweat screaming “No Marto”, but no team mate of his would confirm this
Martin finished with an impressive stat line for any player, let alone a point guard going for 21 points, 10 rebounds (5 being offensive), 4 steals, 3 blocks and 3 assists whilst shooting at 60% from the field and 50% from down town.
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| Look mum.... No eyes |
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