NBL Wrap Round 21: It’s a long way down

In a short round, one of the 2 teams playing twice in it kicked it off and it was a clash of the Titans when the first placed Breakers hosted the 2^nd place Crocs.

The Crocs were coming off a great stretch of wins where they have played some of their best basketball, putting them in second place on the NBL ladder and saw them coming in against the league leaders as the in form team of the competition.

Seems the Breakers didn’t get that memo and took it to the Crocs from the start, opening up a big lead early in the game and holding onto it, at one stage having an 18 point lead…………..but then something happened.

The Crocs made a massive comeback and drew within single digits in the 4^th quarter where it matters most, in the low scoring affair defence was the key, and the Crocs came back into the game through their defensive effort, but even with such a valiant effort, they were pipped at the line by the league leaders in what was a massive effort to comeback.

 Kirk Penney again, as he always is seems to be the Breakers assassin, probably one of the most unstoppable offensive players in the league rattled off another 20pt game to go with his 6reb and 2blk, helping him out was Mika Vukona who had 10pts 8reb and 6ast, another do it all type game, CJ Bruton contributed 11pts of his own and the Red Rocket Gary Wilkinson provided less than his normal scoring output but ended up with 12pts and 7reb.

For the Crocs, only Luke Schenscher and Will Blalock put up any numbers that are worthwhile mentioning, Cool Hand Luke having a Croc leading 16pts to go with his 6reb and Blalock having 15pts 3ast and 3st.

The Taipans are the other team playing twice this round, in what some would say is a watered down version of the old dreaded Doomsday Double, the old Doomsday Double meant you played the 36ers on a Friday night, then the Wildcats on a Saturday night, maybe players just aren’t as hard as they used to be, who knows.

The 36ers played well, getting contributions from the usual suspect Adam “Balls” Ballinger who had a less than usual game with 14pts 7reb 3ast 4blk but 5 turnovers, but helping him out was good contributions from youngster Daniel Johnson who had 13pts 9reb and 3 blk, the type of numbers most expect out of the talented young big man, Eddie Shannon and Brad Hill being the only other double figure contributors with 10 and 11 points respectively.

While the 36ers played well, the Taipans just played better, the Taipans frontcourt proving to be too much for the 36ers, Alex Loughton having a sensational game with 21pts 11reb, Ron Dorsey is starting to be more productive in the 2^nd half of the season and contributed 19pts 6reb and 3st, the workman like Dusty Rychart having 10pts and 5reb while their under rated big man Ian Crosswhite had 12pts 5reb 3ast and 3st.

The Taipans are getting production from their front court and will be trying to show that dominance again when they face the Wildcats in the 2^nd game of the round, Cairns are looking to solidify themselves in the top 4.

The Crocs then had to face the resurgent and desperate Hawks in their second game of the round, the Hawks are trying to keep their playoff hopes alive, the Crocs doing their best to hang onto their dream of a 2^nd place finish, problem is, someone was going to see their wishes demolished, this week was the Crocs turn.

The Hawks got production from the players who were expected to produce for them, Gary Ervin gaining some of his earlier season form and dropping 18pts 5reb and 7ast in a well rounded game for the sensational point guard, he was helped by Most Improved candidate and the games leading scorer Oscar Forman who had 19pts, but it was big man Larry Davidson with is 17pt and 14reb game who did the damage, Larry was a beast on the boards and proved to be the deciding factor in the Hawks dominance over the big frontline of the Crocs.

The Crocs were left shaking their heads as to how this game got away, having 5 double digit scorers to the Hawks one, you would think the Crocs had a good spread of scoring, good enough to possibly get the win, but it was to no avail.

Russell Hinder, in a big Croc frontline was the only Croc player to get more than 4 rebounds with 8 to go with his 11pts and 3st, Cool Hand Luke, while contributing 14pts had only 4reb, the same could be said for Rosell Ellis who also had 14pts but only a dismal 2reb, Peter Crawford with 11 and Nathan Crosswell with 12 were the only other contributors for the Crocs.

Maybe it was fatigue, who knows, but the Crocs did not show the defensive effort that took them to the line in their comeback against the Breakers and were utterly beaten on the boards, this loss sees them relinquish their much sought after 2^nd place on percentage to the Wildcats, who with a win over the Taipans could see the Crocs fighting for 3^rd and 4^th with the Taipans in the playoff race, the one place they don’t want to be.

There is nothing a Kings addicted or a Tigers obsessive loves more than getting the opportunity to get one up on their most loathed rival and a select few of Sydney’s finest got to do just that. 

Whether it was the week off the Tigers had or the tough travel schedule to get to Haymarket but they were caught napping from the get go.  The trip back home is going to be a little heavier checking in the loss as excess baggage. 

Sydney moved the ball well and found the right player to make the play, their 58% from the field dwarfed the Tigers 46% by comparison. In a move unprecedented in the NBL the referees decided to keep the whistles out of their mouths, blowing 27 fouls for the game (10 Kings, 17 Tigers). In translation that gave the Kings 15 free throws to the Tigers 7.  

And it was about 8pm EST that the hopes of Melbourne playing finals basketball this season died.  

Not to discredit Daryl Corletto but if he is your main man then your team is showing some worrying signs. Daryl fired away 24 points, Benny Lewis wrangled 10 points in 18 minutes and Lucas ‘Moon’ Walker pegged away for ten

Julian Khazzouh was the pick of a fired up Sydney bunch with 28 points Whilst Ben Magden fired 22 whilst shooting 10-14 from the field. Benny Knight showed some signs of life with 18.

The last game of the round saw one of the highest scoring teams in the league pitted against one of the lowest. The final scoreboard reflected this. 

Cairns got off to their patented slow start making sure they utilised every second of their shot clock, often settling for a rushed shot as time expired, the Wildcats went to work putting on points, grabbing rebounds and generally making life tough.

Almost as if it was scripted the Taipans made their charge though the Cats quickly stamped out that spot fire. Cairns were clearly rattled, many of their senior players giving up on playing to state their claims with the referees. 

Ayined Ubaka and Alex Loughton were the best of a bad batch of snakes alive, both with 14 points. Ron Dorsey was the only other to provide any type of support. 

With this win and the Crocs two loses the Wildcats now find themselves in second position. Matthew Knight having his best game in a while scored 21 points, seven rebounds and two blocks. Kevin Lisch scored 14, Damian Martin 13 and Stevie Weigh 12.

One HD and Sky TV have had their fair share of questionable moments this season. The starting lineup shoe graphic is one, the terrible ring cam view is another but this week’s blunder probably went unnoticed by many of you in Basketball nation takes the cake. 

  Keen to display the rosters and get the game going the broadcasters placed the Crocs roster overlay on the screen (a shout out to Dunkin Dan for managing to capture the screen cap).  Apart from running through the roster in number order and tacking Peter Crawford on the end these brainiacs still consider Gabe Freeman part of the Crocs team. Kudos to you.

Phill Jones was found guilty of head-butting by the NBL tribunal and was given $1,000 fine payable to NBL Office by 5:00PM AEDT 16th March 2011. If payment is not made by that time the player is suspended from his next 2 NBL fixture games. 

Now originally this meant that Phill was all clear to play in the team’s two game road trip but was for some reason omitted from the team on both nights. Is this the Jones/Cairn’s Taipans was of saying that we aren’t going to pay the fine so we’ll just rub Jones out now?

If so then the NBL will be asking for their change whilst the Taipans will be counting their change because flights to and from Adelaide and Perth along with accommodation will probably tally up to more than $1,000.  $1,000 saved, $1,000 spent.

Take the time to in in our 2011 CBAB annual awards. Voting is open till the end of the regular season.