36ers hand Hawks a whuppin, 87 – 63
The Hawks are not in a good place right now, and the beating they got in this game was the same as the one a little brother would get from his bigger brother for perving on the bigger brothers girlfriend while she’s getting changed.
Hawks import Showron Glover, otherwise known as “Tha Show” shall now be dubbed “Tha No Show” for forgetting to bring any resemblance of a basketball player or any kind of game when he turned up to the stadium on this night, so much so that Glover didn’t even manage to put up 1 field goal for the whole game, not something you want from an import point guard.
The Hawks other import Joevan Catron must have stolen Glover’s portion of hoop juice before the game as he was the lone hand in keeping the Hawks anywhere near resembling a basketball team, Catron lead the Hawks in scoring and rebounding with 19pts 11reb, no other member of the Hawks squad even warrants a mention, so we won’t mention just how bad they were.
The 36ers on the other hand have continued their good form lead by all purpose import Diamon Simpson. Simpson has gone from strength to strength since his debut in the NBL, and even without a mid range game, he continues to dominate the low block with his post scoring and rebounding on both ends of the floor, Simpson ended up with a game high 22pts and also had 10reb to record another double double.
Steven Weigh is showing some improvement with more consistent court time and had another double figure output of 11pts and 4reb, Chris Warren was again a solid contributor with 12pts and 5ast but it is the rise of young 7 footer Daniel Johnson that is surprising people the most, putting him in as a front runner for the Most Improved Award and forming a formidable front court with Simpson.
The loss of Adam Ballinger and Nathan Crosswell was a big sore point for 36ers fans, but with the play of their young front court and the injury replacement of Crosswell with Everard Bartlett as a combo guard able to provide solid minutes in the back court, signs are looking up for the 36ers.
Breakers dominate Taipans, 85 – 65
Oh the Taipans, we’ve said it on here many times, but this team can be great one week and flat out suck the next, well this was one of those weeks where they sucked, even against top competition, which is usually when their game elevates, they couldn’t put on anything more than a B Grade effort.
Imports Andrew Warren and Jamar Wilson were again the 2 most consistent Taipans players but even their output was mediocre by their standards, well for Wilson anyway, Warren did his thing and went for 18pts and not much else, Wilson had 11pts and 3ast.
Alex Loughton seems to be returning to something that resembles form on a basketball court, and even though he dropped 13pts and 4reb, he shot an abysmal 4/14 from the field for 29%.
The Breakers however were, well, the Breakers, they did what they do to most teams and flat out dominated the game.
Lead by former Tiger Darryl Corletto with 26pts on 6/8 from 3pt land the Breakers dominated the Taipans on the boards, out rebounding the Taipans 42 to 28 including 16 offensive boards, 10 of those rebounds going to Alex Pledger. Thomas Abercrombie was proved to be human and had an off night going only 1/8 from the field with 7pts and only 3reb, but it again was Cedric Jackson steadying the ship with a nice offensive output of 18pts to again toy with getting close to a triple double adding 6reb and 7ast to the points total and Gary Wilkinson was again on song with 13pts and 5reb.
The Breakers seem to be playing the best ball and are the most consistent team in the NBL right now, and based on current form, we can’t see anyone changing that anytime soon.
(BoxScore)
Wildcats succumb to Blaze onslaught: 77-74
The Wildcats are a special team, one quite adept at building a 20 point lead and one quite versed at losing a 20 point lead. The Wildcats all but had this game wrapped up at half time, the Blaze not even looking interested in the game, in fact it took one and a half quarters before any one not named Adam Gibson or Mark Worthington to score for the Blaze.
The Wildcats have traditionally never been that good in the third quarter and this script followed the usual one. Behind Adam Gibson who nailed three long balls in succession the Blaze powered their way back into the game, clearly with momentum on their side.
Things went from bad to worse in the fourth stanza for the Cats. Matty Knight’s injury could not inspire the cats to ‘do it for Matty’. The Wildcats looked terrible scoring only 7 points for the quarter. The Blaze however went for 19, some big shots down the stretch by Adris Deleon effectively sealed the game for the Blaze
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| Congrats on 200 Wortho |
This is not to say that the dice wasn’t rolled in the Blaze’s favour, the Blaze apparently only committing one defensive foul and one offensive foul in the fourth quarter and both of those were in the final minute of the game, the Wildcats had already been whistled for five within the first five minutes. As people who watch a lot of basketball we just fail to see how it can go that way in a game with this sort of intensity.
Adam Gibson put himself in to player of the week consideration with 28 points at an impressive 11/15 from the field. Gibbo was simply on fire and just about everything he threw up saw the bottom of the net. Mark Worthington didn’t let getting fouled out spoil his 200th game. The Worthinator went for 15 points and 9 boards whilst Ardis Deleon who was kept quiet early on finished with 15 points (@ 28%) but hit a huge and heavily guarded three that changed the game.
Seven points in the final quarter, 22 points in the half. This sort of stats aren’t going to cut in the NBL. You need to ask yourself, how many times are we going to give up 20 points leads before it finally sinks in. Kevin Lisch was the pick of the Wildcat bunch with 17, Like Nevill showed that he has some game in the first half but couldn’t carry that through and Matty Knight grabbed 14 boards and scored 9 points before he hit the deck hard. Poor fellow had no idea what was going on when he came to. Get well soon Matty, no one like to see anyone get injured, let alone carried off on a stretcher.
Tigers 93- Crocodiles 80
Townsville put themselves out of this game in the second quarter, scoring an almost ‘Wildcat-like’ 9 points whilst letting the Tigers explode for 26. A big third quarter from the Crocs had them thinking about the little engine that could (I think I can, I think I can) however that glimmer of hope was quickly subdued as the Tigers ran out for the comfortable thirteen point victory.
Though Peter Crawford was bombing them from outside the Crocs uncharacteristically were flaccid inside getting outscored 30 – 18 in points in the paint. The Crocs put in a good effort but at the end of the day simply could not match the efficiency of the Tigers offence. The Tigers shot 51% from the field.
The Tigers have come together as a team a lot more since Patty Mills jumped ship to the Orient, and particularly in this game. At times it seems like the team just relies on Cam Tragardh to score points and grab boards but look at the scoring spead here. Tragardh 19 points, Tommy Greer 18 points, Ron Dorsey 18 points and Daniel Dillon with 16 points. See what happens when you all pitch in and help, you beat a team as good as the Crocs but such a comfortable margin.
Peter Crawford did his best to keep the Crocs in it. PC finished with a game high 30 points which included 8 from the land of plenty. Jacob Holmes finished with 20 points and Luke Schenscher scored 11.
Can’t Buy a Damn Thing Award
We aren’t too sure if it is a direction from the NBL front office, a popular phrase that we aren’t aware of or simply a small group of people trying to ‘bring a word back’ or make it cool, but the use of the word “swagger” has to go.
NBL commentary’s version on Guy Smiley, Steve Carfino and burger merchant & Gold Coast Blaze advocate Shane Heal’s use of the phrase “swagger” this weekend was dreadful. Their usage of the term “swagger” was ticking over faster than the Wildcats second half score. On the bright side though, at least it gives us reason to delay Channel 10’s decision to air footage of cheerleaders dancing through timeouts instead using that time to show things like replays or highlights. Ardis Deleon storming around the court like a little kid at a birthday party was confused for “swagger”, Kevin Lisch doesn’t walk around the court strutting with “swagger”. Swagger isn’t sitting on the bench wearing your club polo shirt and jeans and “swagger” isn’t high-fiving a teammate.
Even the NBL website has introduced this word. Here’s to hoping that ‘swagger’ leaves the lexicon of the leagues linguists; because contrary to Carfino and Heal, you don’t win games with “swagger” you win games by scoring more points that your opponent.
Gimme My Change Award
Sometimes change is a good thing, and the type of change this award is about is a good thing if you’re a Blaze player or fan.
The Blaze took out this week’s award with a monumental comeback effort against the Wildcats.
Being down double digits for most of the first half, sometimes with the lead blowing out to 20pts, the Blaze kept their swag and had belief they could come back.
After the Wildcats usual 3rd quarter lapse, the Blaze brought it back to within a reasonable total for a 4th quarter run, and make that run they did.
Lead by the sharpshooting of Adam Gibson and Adris Deleon and contributions from Mark Worthington, who despite foul trouble managed to stay in the game until the end, the Blaze rallied and believed enough that they could come back, and come back they did to win by 3 in the end.
Is this a good sign for an inconsistent Blaze team, probably, can they keep this level of play up for the rest of the season, probably not, but they should be thanking their lucky stars they had 2 games against the Wildcats at home this season and only have to play them once more, albeit away in the Jungle.
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