Breakers hold strong against the Hawks, 82 – 74
The Hawks had been coming back strong lately after a season of disappointment and they looked to continue the road back to respectability against the league leaders who they have defeated previously.
After last week’s stellar performance and player of the week nomination, Oscar Forman was hoping to continue his form and be the inspirational leader to bring an upset result against the league leading Breakers to the Gong.
Unfortunately for the Big O he just ran out of gas but luckily his team mates heard the rallying cry and gave an inspirational performance worthy of respect regardless of the result.
Lead by Hawks top scorer Joevan Catron who worked hard for his 14pts, albeit at a measly 38% from the field, Catron also only managed 4reb but sometimes stats don’t do a player justice, helping Catron was new import Ayinde Ubaka who had 13pts and 5reb who also unbelievably had the same FG% as Catron but had half the shot attempts and of which half of those came from beyond the 3pt arc.
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| Davidson has been a teddy bear as of late |
Larry Davidson and Rhys Martin were the other double figure scorers on this night with 12pts a piece, Martin having a team high 5assists and Davidson adding 3 rebounds, it’s nice to see Davidson have some relevance once again but his lack of game resembling anything of a big man style is of concern, maybe he needs to bring back his Grizzly Adams look with the beard and headband because his game right now resembles a fluffy teddy bear than a grizzly bear, not what’s expected of a big man with his talent level.
The Breakers however were lucky to get away with a win with the Hawks making it tough for the league leaders, once again it was the Jackson and Abercrombie show with a few special guests making an appearance.
CJ Bruton once again showed you can never count out a team he is on, the wily old veteran is one of those player who knows how to switch it on in the 4th quarter and defines the word clutch in the modern NBL, he can do nothing for the first 3 quarters but in the 4th, you know if he is on court he’s going to do what he can to win, and his 13pts off the bench, while not very efficient at 33% from the field (4/12) and 33% from 3pt (3/9) were well needed.
Gary Wilkinson was again workmanlike with his 10pts 6reb but it was Cedric Jackson who was the man all over the court, when your point guard has the team high in rebounds and has a 20pt and 10reb double double, as a coach you really should thank the hoop gods for your blessings.
Thomas Abercrombie was the star of the night though, with a game high 25pts shooting a 69% clip from the field with 3reb 2ast 2st and 2blk proving he is the man to lead the Breakers on another title run and doing it in such an exciting and high flying way it has Breakers fans forgetting all about some guy they used to have on their team, we think his name was Kirk something or other.
Crocs obliterate the Taipans, 75 – 43
OH MY!! What more can we really say.
If ever there was a game to prove where the inspiration for the name of our website came from this was it because the Taipans sure as hell couldn’t buy a basket.
43 points as a team in a professional league is a scar on the level of play of the NBL, shooting 26% from the field and 13% from 3pt land as a team is something you expect from a Monday night rec league team at the local gym.
Andrew Warren and Brad Hill were the only Taipans players not to mail in any form of offence, and while they were the teams leading scorers and the only ones in double figures with 10pts a piece, those are numbers that are just plainly not good enough if you expect to keep a scoreline competitive.
The only other play worth any mention from the Taipans was Dusty Rychart who pulled in 10reb, other than that we do not believe anything more is warranted to mention apart from the fact that the Taipans had 6 more points than they had total rebounds as a team, but we think we’ve said all we are going to say.
The Crocs just flat out asserted dominance over their North Queensland rivals lead by hometown boy Peter Crawford who had a team high 14pts.
Now the Crocs, even though the demolished their rivals didn’t play that great themselves, but was it their defence that lead to the scoreline or was it merely a horrible offensive night for the Taipans?
Jacob Holmes did not do much scoring this night, but his work on the boards was instrumental in helping the Crocs control the game, Holmes only had 5pts but it was his 15reb and 4ast that proved invaluable in helping the Crocs control the game.
Michael Cedar, Luke Schenscher and Eddie Gill were working by the rule of 3, all 3 players scoring 12pts, Schenscher having 3 defensive rebounds out of his total of 4, Gill having 3ast to go with his 3 turnovers and Cedar also having 3 turnovers.
Ben Allen even had some production in his 20 minutes of court time, not something usually associated with his stat sheet, but 7pts and 7reb is a good addition from a player who usually provides nothing more than a body on the court.
This game while a heated rivalry and one usually providing games worthy of discussion was nothing more than horribly ugly, it will be in the record books for all time, but in some ways, we wish it wasn’t for the benefit of all NBL fans and for the future generations of ones to come, the only thing worse is the fact that it will forever be remembered due to it being a televised game, oh the humanity.
Taipans regroup and hammer the Tigers, 77 – 56
When a team plays the 2ndgame of a back to back stretch, you expect that team to come out a little tired and lethargic, and sure as hell one team played that way, but it wasn’t the team who was on their 2nd game of the round.
The Tigers have had a tumultuous couple of weeks with all kinds of going on happening at the club, but everyone expected them to turn the corner, only problem was they turned the corner all right, straight into an oncoming bus.
With a new import who is getting a handle on the league and the league’s leading scorer in their midst, the Tigers probably expected to mail it in against the Taipans who were on their 2ndgame in 2 nights and were demoralised after a spanking at the hands of their biggest rivals.
This though was not to be, the Tigers played awfully, they shot just 34% from the field and 26% from 3pt land, and for a potent offensive team to be that bad questions are going to be asked.
The Tigers were lead in every way by new import point guard Myron Allen who had team highs in almost every statistical category bar blocks, Allen had a team high 13pts 10reb 3ast and 6 turnovers, but his efforts were not nearly enough.
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| Frustrated with his team’s effort, Bruston challenged Grabau to a duel |
League scoring leader Cam Tragardh did manage double figures with 12pts but had zero rebounds and no other statistical contribution except for a single assist, not something that we believe Trigger will be happy with, it’s not through a lack of talent more so a lack of effort to hit the boards.
Liam Rush was the only other player to score in double figures with 10pts and 4reb, he has been working his way back into some kind of form, but what is most surprising is the lack of use of big man Matt Burston, the Tigers are struggling to rebound and defend yet he is playing just 11 minutes per game, surely Burston could provide some interior defence and rebounding to keep the Tigers competitive and provide better match ups, but what we know, we aren’t coaches, but then again the same can be said about Trevor Gleeson sometimes.
The Taipans deserve some credit for bringing some respectability back to performance they put in the night before, and while not putting up and offensive performance worthy of discussion, it was the defensive side of the ball that swept them to victory.
One player used nothing more than sheer willpower to reignite his team after their dismal performance the precious night, Jamar Wilson took the Taipans on his back and provided a performance worthy of a player deserving to wear the uniform.
Wilson had team highs in points with 25 and rebounds with 7, the trend of point guards leading their team in rebounding is a common theme this round.
The only other player to score in double figures was the unlikely hero and club legend Aaron Grabau who had 13pts and 4reb, much higher production than usual and proving the sometimes having that one veteran player to step up in times of need is more valuable than many think, and Grabau is the most seasoned of the Taipans veterans.
No other player really deserves a mention and the Taipans really need to evaluate their playing style as it definitely is not doing them any favours, the slow grind it out half court offence is not a system that usually works in the NBL but it can at times frustrate other teams and can get a few wins here and there.
The Taipans have the personnel as do the Tigers, let’s just hope that both of these teams find a way to stay competitive and keep their box scores respectable.
Perth beat Sydney, 91-74
Sydney have had quite a week, Moose Robilliard pushed aside to er….. CEO duties which left Tim Hudson to take over the reins and try to steer this young team in the right direction. Regrettably, for Hudson that was right towards the Jungle with the Wildcats waiting there to break a two game losing streak.
With the King’s organisation structure reshuffle aside both teams got out to a clumsy start, the intensity was too much for either team to handle. After the Kings tested the refereeing waters with a few flops early on the Wildcats got a sniff of the lead the Kings pulled it back to a two point margin at the end of the first.
Perth exploded for a massive 36 points in the second quarter, not only was that almost as much as Cairns had in their whole game on Friday night. Matthew Knight went to the bench in agony holding his shoulder only to return from the changeroom minutes later and check himself back into the game. Perth Executed well in the second period, their full court press was picking off passes and making life tough for the Kings. Sydney managed to nail 20 points for the quarter, most of those came when the Kings were able to run against the full court press but they still found themselves behind at the main break.
After piling on so many points in the second the Wildcats put on a now trademarked third quarter performance nailing an alarming 10 points, Sydney managed to make inroads at the deficit but the quarter will be remembered for Jerai Grant showing no regard to current NBL player of the month Jesse Wagstaff. Grant sawed up above the ring to catch an alley oop pass and threw it down on Wagstaff so hard that 4000 odd punters in red simultaneously clapped their hands on their head in disbelief. Wagstaff could only stammer around underneath trying not to lose his footing, maybe he should check himself for a Spalding imprint on his forehead too.
The Kings pulled it to within 2 points but behind a barrage of Jesse Wagstaff three balls, managed to kick out and hang out for a 17 point victory. Wagstaff led the way for Cats scoring a game high 25 points, going 5/8 from outside and also grabbed 8 rebounds. Kevin Lisch blocked a shot, much to the delight of the crowd and got knocked around on his way to 19 points. Lisch was an Energiser Bunny with a never say die attitude taking it to the hole against the most formidable front court in the league. Luke Nevill got the better of the battle against Khazzouh and Tovey did well running the floor after pulling the defensive rebounds.
Anatoly Bose flopped and whinged his way to 16 points and 6 rebounds, Julian Khazzouh had a quiet night by his standards but still managed 10 boards and three blocks, whilst Grant added 12 points and 9 rebounds. Ian Robilliard made a ‘Moose’ of himself suggesting to the media that the Perth Wildcats play an illegal style of play and the refs “bless them” don’t call it. Whether this is just Moose trying to the ball thrown in the Kings end of the court with regards to refereeing decisions or Moose just wanting his name in the newspaper we don’t know. One thing we do know is that he should be calling his men out for their lousy free throw shooting (again). This time 9/16 for 56%.
Crocs annihilate Blaze, 80 – 66
People had only just started talking again about the Blaze, talking about how they could be the only team that might be able to give it to Perth or New Zealand down the stretch and then they put on this, a 14 point shellacking.
From the outset the Blaze were playing catch up basketball; and one thing we know about catch up basketball is that it doesn’t win matches, especially against a team that can add points as quickly as the Crocs.
Sometimes I feel like we get to see two very Crocodile teams, one that plays well and looks good, and the other one is just ugly to watch and doesn’t play with much intensity. The difference in those teams is Peter Crawford. When PC is on the Crocs look sharp and when things are ‘un-PC’ the Crocs are almost explicit to watch.
Crawford went 5/8 from outside to finish with 22 points before fouling out after 21 minutes of action but the damage was done by this stage, the game out of reach. In fact after the first quarter both teams essentially went basket for basket, the outcome of the game was never really in doubt. Eddie Gill added 18 points and 5 assists whilst Elvin Mims had 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Outside of former NBL flavour of the month Ardris Deleon and Mark Worthington the Blaze were antoher team thrown on the ‘sketch pile’ this week along with the Tigers and the Snakes. Adam Gibson shot 2/14, Stephen Hoare 0 points and 1 board in 13 minutes on the court and why is Mike English still listed on the box score, the dude was axed last October.
Deleon finished with 22 points Whilst Mark Worthginton finished with 15 points and 8 rebounds, 4 of those came from the offensive end of the floor.
Gold Coast were given every chance to stay in the game, getting to the line for 31 attempts (compared to the Crocs 13) but could only muster 65%. This performance breaks a considerable win streak for the Blaze and they now currently find themselves 2 games outside the top four. Things are going to be tough for the Blaze from here, but they had 2 more games left than the Corcs or Snakes do, for their sake, we hope they use them well
Can’t Buy a Damn Thing Award
What’s worse than being a team who copped a monumental butt kicking, it would be the team that cops a monumental butt kicking from the team who copped a monumental butt kicking the night before.
This week’s award goes to the Melbourne Tigers who got pumped by 22 points and scored only 56 by the Taipans who played back to back games and who were themselves demolished 32 points the previous night.
The Tigers, who have been the most talked about team of recent times due to off court shenanigans and a change of ownership to reinvigorate the once mighty club would wish that this game be forgotten.
From their highly publicised beginning to the season with the signings of Boomer Star Patty Mills and the letting of club stalwart Darryl Corletto and import Ayinde Ubaka in controversial fashion, having the league’s leading scorer and few highly regarded free agent signing to a total shambles and a possibility to miss the playoffs, oh how the mighty have fallen.
To lose is one thing, to lose in the way the Tigers did is a shame to the once mighty club, expect heads to roll and changes to be made for next season, but not in the same fashion as former owner and CEO Seamus McPeake handled it.
Gimme my Change Award
This week’s award is a little different to our usual award. Well, for starters it happened away from the court.
Following a cheap shot at Helen at Hoopshots over something really minor, Helen decided to make it up to us with our very own photo of CBAB’s biggest fan, Mark Worthington.
After shooting the Blaze @ Kings game Helen confronted Mark to ask for a picture. When Wortho undstood it was for the CBAB boys he was only too happy to partake. So here it is, one happy Wortho, two happy CBAB boys and a smiling photographer. Expect us to use our very own photo of the NBL’s Wortho as often as we can, maybe even in our new header when we revamp our site…
Please take the time to check out Helen’s photography site “Hoop Shots” and follow her on Twitter @hoopshots, she is a very talented photographer with a passion for basketball both the NBL and the WNBL.
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| From out of Wortho’s smile, through Helen’s camera and into our hearts |
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| Wortho goes to Hollywood |
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| Don’t try to say “Luna Park” backwards |
