NBL Wrap Round 19: Wait and Bleed

What could be worse than being in a slump, being in a slump facing the team that’s destroying the rest of the league, but it seems that memo didn’t filter through to the Wildcats for this game.

The Breakers have been seemingly unstoppable but they were pushed to the limits in this game by the defending champs.

Lead by Kevin Lisch, the Wildcats came across the Tasman to take on the Breakers, and took it to the what is probably the most dominant offence in the league, Lisch top scoring for the Cats with 17pts 4reb 4ast and 2st. Providing back up to the feisty guard was big man Andre Brown who had 14pts 10reb but only shooting 6/14 from the field, Damian Martin and veteran Drew Williamson adding 10pts a piece, Martin also grabbing 4 offensive rebounds to match it with big man Brown and Cam Tovey, 12 offensive rebounds grabbed between the 3 players kept the visitors within reach on the scoreboard.

The Breakers though help out on their home court, and the court goblins kept the ball rolling their way, Lisch slipping on the final play driving to the basket proved to be the crucial point in the game going to the home team.

Half of the Breakers points came from 2 players, the potent back court combination of Kirk Penney and CJ Bruton came up big for them, Penney top scoring with 21pts for the home team and Bruton only 1 point behind with 20 of his own.

Mika Vukona was strong on the boards with 10 and import Gary Wilkinson was somewhat solid with 12pts 6reb but had a hard time against the Wildcats defence going for a dismal 4/13 from the field.

 This was some of the best basketball the Wildcats have played since losing captain Shawn Redhage a few weeks earlier, but it proves that when you think you have a wounded animal down, they may come back at you for one last bite.

Things are starting to look better in Tigerland, only problem is, it may have come a little too late to make a difference.

The 36ers were once again lead by their star Adam Ballinger, the mighty red head otherwise known simply as “Balls” or “Balls Ginger” was doing it all, leading the team in scoring with 23pts and grabbing 8reb, young big man Daniel Johnson was also bouncing with “Balls” on the rebounding front with 8reb of his own and joined in with 16pts.

The other contributors for the 36ers were young gun Mitch Creek, who seemed to regain some earlier round form with 10 crucial points and 5reb while reborn from the ashes veteran Rhys Carter also had 15pts and 7ast.

The Tigers were lead to the promised land of victory by under rated big man Mathew Burston, the big fella leading the way on the scoresheet and on the glass for the Tigers with 24pts 13reb 3st and 2blk. Skipper Cam Tragardh and the ever reliable Darryl Corletto rounded out the production for the Tigers, Trigger going for 14pts 6reb and 7ast, not bad for a big man, Corletto adding 14pts and a steal but was Krispy Kreme for all other relevant stats.

The write up for this game is going to be short, real short, for the Hawks anyway. 

With only one player scoring in double figures and the entire hawks team shooting a pitiful 32% from the field and 19% from the 3pt line, we deemed them unworthy of any positive words, and as your mother probably always told you, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all, so well done to Gary Ervin for being the only player in double figure scoring, that’s about it.

The Crocs on the other hand were clinical by comparison, and even they were average.

The Big Red Rocket Luke Schenscher just dominated the game on both ends of the floor for the Crocs, Big Luke went for 16pts and 9reb, he was also helped by the revival of Old Man Hinder who somewhat came alive with 11pts and 5reb and shaking off the tag of Crusty and just going back to being Rusty.

Michael Cedar also contributed to the scoreline with 14pts and Will Blalock, while not dazzling anyone with his offensive prowess, dished out 7ast to go with his 8pts.

The Crocs hold onto 2^nd place in the NBL with their recent form and winning streak, can they hang on for a few more rounds to finish that way?

Ayinde chUbaka must have thought he was flying Han “Solo” but Ian Crosswhite was feeling the force and thought he would lend a helping hand.

Unfortunately the Taipans may have peaked a little too early this season, sitting in between 2^nd and 3^rd for most of the season, they have now fallen to 4^th with 10 losses and have only played 21 games to the 24 played by the Wildcats who have the same number of losses, with the hawks and Blaze breathing down their necks, any loss now could make or break their playoff hope for this season, the loss to the bottom of the table Kings did not help.

Ubaka lead the charge with 17pts, Dusty Rychart made a valiant effort on the boards with 11reb and Ian Crosswhite didn’t let Ubaka play the lone hand and had 16pts 9reb and 4ast, Ron Dorsey also chipped in with 13pts and 4reb but he was only given 18 minutes of court time.

The Kings however had 6 players scoring in double figures, the Kings could change the face of the playoff race by beating teams hoping for a playoff berth, and that’s exactly what they did to the Taipans.

Julian Khazzouh was again proving that with a few more team wins, he could have been in the MVP race, he was again showing why he is probably the premier big man in the competition having 19pts 8reb and 2blk.

The team effort shown by the Kings was superb, Gilder, Sanders, Knight, Madgen and Dann contributing double figure scoring with 11, 14, 10, 13 and 10pts respectively.

Fantastic effort by the Kings, showing that no team should consider them easy beats and should come ready to play every night because they have nothing to lose and will turn up and compete, any team playing the Kings going into the last few rounds should fear them, they could be the team that could destroy your playoff hopes, fear the Kings.

Courtesy of Matt Burston the Tigers got off to the ideal start. Burston was everywhere, dunking the ball, grabbing loose balls and deflecting passes. Cairns managed to keep up with Burston’s onslaught through sharing the ball well and as a team managed to dish 7 of their 15 assists in the first quarter. 

The third quarter makes and breaks teams and for the Taipans it broke them, hopefully for them just for this game and not for the season.  The Taipans shot 3-17 (16.7%) for the quarter and turned the ball over five times. Fortunately for Fearne and his boys the Tigers were unable to capitalise on the Taipans shocking quarter giving their opposition a sniff, albeit from afar. 

It isn’t often the team that loses the rebounding count and loses the assists battle wins the game but the Tigers won this one off points from turnovers (10 – 3) and points in the paint (44 – 24) Burston was Melbourne’s hero, leading the way with 19 points and four steals but had a shocking night on the boards managing to grab three before fouling out. Daryl Corletto had a terrible night from outside (1-5) but finished with 10 points whilst Tommy Greer had 8 points to go with his 10 rebounds. 

 The Taipans who are keen to play finals basketball have been humbled twice this week by teams ranked far lower on the ladder. The boys packed their suits for Melbourne and played the stock exchange instead of basketball. Ayinde Ubaka for the first time this season failed to drop an assist, perhaps this is why the Taipans had trouble scoring. Alex Loughton score 14 points, Daniel Dillon 12 and Phil Jones 10

This is the sort of victory the Wildcat ferals are accustomed to and it’s the sort of victory that makes you forget the Wildcats have gone one and five in their six games prior to this one which includes two losses at home and two losses against the 36ers. Coincidently the last win the Wildcats had at the jungle was one calendar month ago and was also by 20 points. 

Perth finally found the tenacious defence they are notorious for, making every aspect of the game tough for the 36ers, The Wildcats matching Adelaide’s game total of 5 steals in the first quarter alone. Adam Ballinger tried his best to keep the 36ers in the game hitting shots as he pleased. 

Andre Brown fresh off of a Damian Martin nose-job got stuck into things early grabbing boards on both ends and provided scoring from the post. The Wildcat terriers did not give the Adelaide offence an inch. The 36er guards were frustrated and completely caught off guard at times. 

When Ballinger’s scoring dried up so did Adelaide’s, Rhys Carter’s hot streak came to an abrupt halt when he decided to whinge about referee decisions. Without Ron Howard and Darren Ng the 36ers artillery was just too weak, the Wildcats running away with a comfortable victory. 

Opinions have begun to change on Andre Brown as he may have  finally unleashed the beast scoring a team high 15 points (@ 78%) and hauling in 9 rebounds. Conspiracies have been active with many people believing that the elbow he copped at training knocked some sense into him.  Jess Wagstaff and Kevin Lisch both scored 12 points. 

The 36ers were just stymied by the thieving Wildcats with Adelaide having the ball stolen 15 times and finished with 23 turnovers. Rebounding was also a concern mustering 28 whilst the Cats grabbed 38; boxing out was the non-existent as 19 of those were offensive. Ballinger who started well finished with 17 points, Rhys Carter 14 and Eddie Shannon 10.

One HD finally dodged another fizzler and found themselves a sizzler to broadcast to the basketball nation, finally giving the avid sports watcher an interesting game to play arm chair coach with. 

The Breakers got their patented fast start burning it up for 35 first quarter points, the Blaze were hot on their tail with 25. The pace didn’t ease up in the second with both teams’ usual suspects doing the damage; the Breakers entered the main break with the hotter hand and a 15 point lead. 

As regulation time went on the Breakers began to lose their touch, shooting progressively worse as the quarters passed. The Blaze found a spurt of energy and when applied with dead-eye shooting began to shoot their way back into the game. 

Come the fourth quarter the Breakers had either used up their energy or were conserving it for the ensuing overtimes.  Anyhow, it allowed the Blaze to make up the 12 points needed to force overtime. The Breakers failed to put up a shot in the final minute of regulation, both teams committed offensive fouls and the Breakers had 2 chances to win it. It was nail biting to say the least.  

In the first overtime both teams traded baskets, too scared to think what might become if they were to miss. It was a Thomas Abercrombie shot that forced a second overtime. Then 45 minutes into the game ten weary legged players took to the court, the Blaze hoping the Breakers would run out of steam late in their second game for the week. 

In a twist of fate it was the Blaze that ran out of steam, scoring 5 points at a terrible clip (22%), the Breakers ran away with an 8 point win.  The Breakers  continue to get strong performances with their usual stars, Kirk Penney shot 6/7 from deep and finished with 35 points, Gary Wilkinson forgot about rebounding so he could concentrate on scoring 21 points, CJ Bruton shot 5/8 from outside on his way to 20 points and Kevin Brasswell threw 13 assists. These types of performances have been typical for the Breakers main brass and we can’t help but wonder what would happen if these four aren’t firing.

James Harvey provided a vintage “Harv’s” performance. James ahoy top scored for the Blaze with 27 points, Ira Clark banged away for 23, Adam Gibson 19 and Stephen Hoare scored 16 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.

Nothing gives us at CBAB more pleasure than giving this award to its recipient this week.

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the so called “replacement” for Mark Worthington on the Gold Coast Blaze………………..Luke Kendall.

The last time Kendall played anything resembling decent basketball, he was playing for the Wildcats in the magnificent double overtime victory against the 36ers a few seasons ago where after coming out of semi retirement and flat out sucking for the few weeks he was there, gave a swansong performance and lead the Wildcats to victory in that game.

Unfortunately for the Blaze, the only thing he has been carrying since then was a few extra pounds and a supersized cheeseburger meal after practice; he is also responsible for providing the team with donuts.

Kendall in this game was very Krispy Kreme and went 0 for 6 including 0 for 4 from the 3pt line, this week Jason Cadee and Brendan Teys may have had a few extra on the side and joined him in the donut stat line stakes, the most amazing stat for Kendall on this night was the 24+ minutes given to him from coach Joey Wright.

The only thing Kendall should replace is the soft drink on his happy meal with a shake as it’s as ice cold as his shooting……………would you like fries with that Luke?

As the season begins to wind down teams are hoping to be sitting comfortably in the top four. This week’s award goes to the teams at the bottom of the ladder that make the quest for a playoffs berth that much harder. We love to see teams at the bottom knock over the top four. 

Cairns were bowled over twice this week, once by the Sydney Kings and once by the Melbourne Tigers. Let’s not forget the 36ers who although lost tonight have beaten the Wildcats twice in as many weeks.  So to the teams sitting on the bottom of the ladder, this one is for you.