NBL Wrap Round 12: Twas the night before Christmas

This was the top of the ladder contest that fizzled. Many people were beginning to think the Wildcats aren’t as good as they are touted to be. The Wildcats built a 12 point lead by quarter time then a 23 point going into the half. The Breakers came out on a 14 to 2 run into the third which mad many thinking the Cats were going to simply hand the game to the Breakers game but after a Bevo timeout the Cats regrouped and continued to pile points on the board. Apart from the mini run the Breakers had in the third they never ever looked like their heads were in this game.

To be fair to the Breakers, the game didn’t tip off until midnight their time and finished sometime around 2am. This could explain the Kiwi’s lethargic approach to the game but doesn’t explain their angst-like temperament. Gary Wilkinson was an angry man until he got whistled for a tech for slapping the ball into the crowd after a dunk after which he disappeared from the game and Cedric Jackson, clearly frustrated with the pressure applied by the Martin, Robbins and Lisch combination finally had enough and put Wildcat pretty boy Kevin Lisch on his backside off the ball. Jackson was given a USF for his efforts. This is the sort of behaviour that transpires when you are accustomed to winning and then things finally don’t go your way.

With something to prove the Wildcats were hungrier in every facet of the game and after the spraying they copped from Coach Beveridge after the Blaze break out they would have wanted to. Looking straight from the 70’s Jesse Wagstaff led the way for the cats with 23 points whilst Lisch backed up with 18. The rest of the Wildcats provided great support in the absence of Matty Knight. Shawn Redhage’s season had another turn after he left the game to go hospital to get a poked eye checked out.

From the tip off the Breakers never looked like being in this one. Jackson finished with a frustrating 15 points and 8 rebounds, Tom Abercrombie 14 points and Mika Vukona 13 points.

The Blaze are either hot or cold and regrettably for Adelaide, they met them when they were hot. Adam Gibson continued his sizzling form from last week again putting himself into player of the week consideration with 27 points and grabbed 8 boards. Jason Cadee made the most of the extra ‘blow out’ minutes he received finishing with 13 points whilst the bigs,  Stephen Hoare, Anthony Petrie Will Hudson all scored 10 points apiece.

Adelaide need to make sense of how they got outrebounded 45 to 26, with their bigs (Diamon Simspon and Daniel Johnson) in theory too big and too strong for the Blaze. Field goal percentage is also a concern with the 36ers managing a meagre 38% from the floor whilst letting the Blaze loose, allowing 55%.

Foul trouble limited Mark Worthington to 13 minutes of game time which was ok as he got to watch Gibbo go off and watch his team remain the top 4 on the ladder, if only by a thread. Brendan Teys needs to be asking what he has to do, not even managing to make it on the court in this blowout.  

Liam Rush must be breathing a huge sigh of relief after his team managed the small victory after one of his late game free throws rattled out. Alex Loughton however, must have ended up on Santa’s naughty list as his three ball to win the game was off the mark.

Oddly enough is that the Taipans out rebounded and out assisted the Tigers, an unusual statistic for a losing team. As often the problem, it was field goal percentage that let the Snakes down. Without their floor leader Jamal Wilson it was left to Andrew Warren to carry the bulk of the workload. Warren got some support in Crosswhite and Hill, but it wasn’t enough to get the Snakes over the line.

Warren finished with 20 points but definitely tried his luck from outside going 4/11. More devastating was Alex Loughton’s 2/14 from the field which leads to the question, did he really think his last second chance was going to drop? Bread Hill grabbed 12 boards to go with his 14 points and Ian Crosswhite scored 11 and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Cam Tragardh was the pick of a mediocre bunch, but then again that is expected with the low scoring drain and scramble usually associated with a Cairns game. Tragardh led the team with 14 points and 5 boards. Ayinde Ubaka ptovided some support with 11 points.

The Kings contemplated life without Julian Khazzouh this week but his return from the NBA pre-season was quicker than Donovan Monroe’s stint at the Hawks. Khazzouh’s return wasn’t enough to inspire the Kings for victory.

In saying that, victory against the Crocs when Peter Crawford and Eddie Gill are red hot isn’t an easy task. The task becomes a lot harder when Jacob Holmes decided to consider himself a scorer also. The Kings did challenge and play for four quarters but they could not dig deep enough to pull through.

Sydney looked inside often and relied on Khazzouh and Jerai Grant to make most of the scoring duties but it was the Crocs 16/32 from the land of plenty that ultimately did the damage. Whilst the Kings hand a match for Jacob Holmes it had no match for the offensive prowess of the Crocodile guards.

Peter Crawford was electrifying, putting on a vintage PC performance (and a typical one for this season) finishing with 22 points whilst Eddie Gill shot 8/11 (5/6 from deep) for his 26 points and still had time to drop nine dimes whilst Jacob Holmes cleaned the boards, grabbing 11 to match his 21 points.

Khazzouh and Grant were fantastic inside. Khazzouh scored 17 points, grabbed 13 boards and swatted 4 shots whislt Grant finished with 18 points and 12 boards. Anatoly Bose chipped in with another 18 points.

Santa delivered the best present of all to the Wollongong Hawks. A Christmas bye. For the first time in a month the Hawks know what it feels like to not lose a game, the bye putting a hiatus on their four game losing streak.

Alex Loughton gets a reprieve this week.

Bennie Anthony and Leon  Henry share custody of this week’s award. With key players in foul trouble and benched Coach Lemanis called upon his tattooed soldiers to take on an increased role in the rotation on the road. Anthony repaid their coaches faith with a combined 0 points (0/4), 1 rebound, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls in a combined 14 and a half minutes of action. Great performance from two on the national team roster,right?