NBL 2012/13 Round 19 Wrap

Breakers defeat Hawks, 92 – 84

For the Hawks this was the Adris and Oscar show, these 2 Hawks players scoring a combined 54 pts of the 84 total for the struggling boys from the Gong.

Deleon looking like the guy who deserves the twitter handle @2hard2guard with an amazing performance, his 33pts coming off 71% from the field including 60% from beyond the 3pt line, and if that wasn’t good enough, Forman’s shooting night was even better for his 21pts shooting and amazing 75% from both the field and beyond 3pt.

On any given night that would be enough to be looking good towards a victory, only problem for the Hawks was that the

Mika Vukona and Thomas Abercrombie made sure of that, Vukona having an unusual night for him on the offensive end with a team high 24pts at 79% from the floor, Abercrombie seems to have found the form that had so many touting him as a star player in the league, he is still far from his best but it seems to be coming back to him.y were up against the Breakers, it seems to be that against them this kind of performance doesn’t seem to count for much.

Alex Pledger had a double double with 12pts and 10reb but even a subpar night from Cedric Jackson by his standards wasn’t enough to see the Breakers beaten, with only a few rounds left to the season, the Breakers seem to just keep getting it done while being on cruise control, very very scary.

 

Taipans hang on against Kings, 78 – 75

The Kings have been nothing short of an enigma this season, sometimes looking like a team who is unbeatable and losing, other times not looking so great but still winning, to us that just makes no sense at all, we can imagine how frustrating that must be to Coach Heal.

This game saw Ian Crosswhite dominate with 21pts and 10reb for another double double, some balanced double figure contributions from his team mates on the score sheet but again coming up short, Madgen, Harvey, Bruce and even double figure scoring from Tom Garlepp just wasn’t enough against a Taipans team who are notoriously lacking offensively.

Alex Loughton looks like the player of old in recent rounds, top scoring for his team and providing a glimpse of the big man duo with Cam Tragardh that all Taipans fans were hoping for, a big night on the boards from Hill with 14reb and some volume shooting from Jamar Wilson kept the big guys more focussed.

With the snakes all but gone from the playoff picture and the Kings holding on by a thread, this was a more significant loss for the Kings than a victory for the Taipans, will this come back to haunt the kings by not executing when needed, the way the Kings play, we have no idea.

 

Wildcats hammer Crocs, 80 – 52

After the Crocs woeful start to the season it looked like since the signing of Luke Nevill that things were on the up and up, but sometimes it takes a reality check to bring you back down to earth, and that’s exactly what the Crocs got coming up against the Wildcats in front of their usual 10,000+ screaming fans at the new jungle.

Things were going alright for the Crocs, for the first 5 minutes at least, pressure was then dealt by the Cats as is their usual style, tempers were lost, unsportsmanlike fouls were whistled, the usual Russell Hinder douche baggery appeared and a Gary Ervin dummy spit ensued.

Even though the CBAB boys were at the game we have no explanation for the lack of heart shown by Ervin and why he only played 23 minutes, he didn’t look injured, he wasn’t in foul trouble, the only thing we could think of was that the crowd and the pressure got to him and he crumbled like a stale cookie

Luke Nevill put in a valiant effort and was the only double figure scorer for the Crocs but once again was shut down by the team defence of the Cats and the one on one low post play of Matt Knight and Jeremiah Trueman, yes, you heard right, Jeremiah Trueman, he was all over Nevill like a bad rash.

Matt Knight was again a beast on the court with 14pts and 13reb, Jeremiah “J.T” Trueman had an outstanding performance with 14pts of his own, but if that wasn’t enough, Jesse Wagstaff didn’t want to be left out of the 14pt party so he decided to crash as well making them the 3 top scorers for the game all with 14pts a piece

Talking about the Cats and how well they played would probably sound like bias, but believe us, they didn’t play well, offensively anyway, but defensively they were relentless as usual, to be able to play so badly on the offensive end but still win in such significant fashion proves that your team defence is in the elite category, even though the Cats played so well defensively the fact they are playing so poorly offensively is of concern, hopefully some form will be found in the push towards the playoffs, and if anyone has seen Kevin Lisch and his offence, please return him to Perth Arena as soon as possible, the address should be on his collar or his MVP trophy.

36ers take out Taipans, 71 – 68

In the battle of the cellar dwellers both teams were playing more for pride than anything, the 36ers though playing were for the opportunity to not be the only team on the bottom of the ladder and that for them was incentive enough.

The Taipans again lived up to their usual offensive limitations and were poor in their scoring once again shooting a dismal 37% from the floor and an appalling 5% from the 3pt line, the Taipans it seems couldn’t through a rock into the sea from the beach.

Cam Tragardh once again leading the way for the Taipans with a 14pt 14reb double double, Alex Loughton couldn’t back up his game from earlier in the round and checked out early from anything resembling a basketball game.

Daniel Johnson was his usual self with 17pts and 11reb and Adam Gibson showed why he was touted for quite some time as one of the league’s premier guards with a 16pt contribution, Anthony Petrie the man providing spark off the bench with 18pts and 8reb to keep the 36ers in the game.

The 36ers for the most part weren’t much better other than the snakes from the 3pt line and it took some last second heroics from youngster Jason Cadee to put them over the line for the victory.

The 36ers will look back on this season as a major disappointment considering how good their roster looks on paper, the Taipans who came into the season full of promise will also see this as a disappointing and lost season.

Even so both of these teams have the potential to shake up the ladder by beating the fringe playoff teams, and both teams can do it on any given night, we will just see how much pride they both actually have to fight all the way until the end.

 

Perth defeat Melbourne, 83 – 79

Basketball is on the up and up in Melbourne, thanks largely to the Tigers hitting a hot spot at the right time of the season. The Perth offense looked shaky and the Tigers were just finding ways to put the ball through the hoop, the crowd was sensing a Tiger victory.

That was until the final quarter when the Wildcats started playing with the sense of urgency one would have if someone set off a fire cracker in their pants. Their shots wouldn’t miss and every punch the Tigers threw, the Wildcats could counteract, most of the time from beyond the arc.

Speaking of punches, this game was very winnable for the Tigers. Some will say it was the difference in each squad’s skill or the others may even point fingers at the refs, but the truth of the matter is the Tigers were simply undisciplined. If Coach Anstey could get his group in check then who knows what this squad is capable of? Jonny Flynn finished with 24 points whilst Chris Goulding had 15 and Liam Rush had 14.

The Wildcats finished 2-0 on this round’s double, but not without a casualty. Big Man, Matty Knight left the game with another injury. Kevin Lisch scored 16 points, Rhys Cater a valuable 14 from off the bench, Shawn Redhage finished with 12.

 

Hawks Thump Crocs, 86 – 62

With both teams coming off Friday night losses the fans were hoping for a fierce contest, fighting not to go 0-2 for the weekend. But that wasn’t to be. The Crocs look done. They were flat, lethargic and simply had no fight.

Adris Deleon and Oscar Forman continued on their tip top form, Deleon etching another 28 points on his career totals and 0 turnovers, yes that’s right, 0 turnovers; and Forman piling on 22 points, each point more painful for the Crocs than the one preceding it.

Todd Blanchfield showed the only sign of life for the Crocs scoring 12 points and grabbing 13 boards. Blanchfield certainly has a major claim for the NBL’s most improved player award. Excluding Rusty Hinder’s only shot, no Crocs shot more than 50% from the field, some were terrible, some were worse than that.

 

Can’t Buy a Damn Thing Award

Not moving right along just yet we’ll stick with the Crocs. 0- 2 for the weekend losing by a combined 54 points makes them worthy winners of this week’s award.

 

Gimme My Change Award

The Hawks haven’t has much to crow about, or whatever sound a hawk makes and though they didn’t get through the weekend unbeaten their fans still have something to make some noise over. Adris Deleon and Oscar Forman capped off the weekend with a combined 115 points for the weekend. That is 57.5 points for the duo for each game or 28.75 points individually per game. Any way you want to break the stats up, it looks great.