Canadians in Australia - NBL Round 17
With time in Australia's premier basketball league winding down and the playoff push heating up, a
story unfolded in the seventeenth round of the NBL - with the league's Canadian contingent right in the middle of it.
The week began with Canadian coach Scott Morrison's Perth Wildcats hosting MiKyle McIntosh and the Tasmania JackJumpers. Early shooting success against gave the JackJumpers an early advantage, but Perth struck back nine threes in the first half, as well as picking up plenty of low post points to capture the half-time lead. The gap was enough for Tasmania to mount a comeback, they began the second half with four threes, keeping Perth on back foot.
With just over two minutes left and a point between the teams, the game heated up. Josh Adams put the JackJumpers up with a three, Bryce Cotton had one in response which put the Wildcats one point behind, but a final three attempt by Victor Law fell short and victory was Tasmania's. MiKyle McIntosh contributed four points in the JackJumper's big win over the defending champions.
The same day, James Duncan's Brisabne Bullets had an eventful clash with the New Zealand Breakers. After eighteen points in the paint and seven threes in Q2, the Breakers had a big early lead, which Robert Franks and Anthony Drmic set about cutting down from the low post. The Breakers' success dwindled as the game went on and Brisbane went from down seven at the start of the fourth quarter to leading by one in the final stretch.
Yanni Wetzell tied scores for the Breakers and after all other shot attempts in regulation missed, the game went to overtime. There, threes from Franks, Drmic and Tanner Krebs in the last 14 seconds lifted the Bullets to a dramatic one-point win with the game finally over.
Following these close wins, both victors met up in Queensland, where the sparks flew once again. The JackJumpers short-range shooting put them up eight early on, to which Brisbane began a response from the low post, but with success coming sporadically they still trailed. MiKyle McIntosh had all of his twelve points on the game in the first half, a big part in Tasmania ending the half leading by three.
Brisbane regained the lead in the low post in the third, only for Tasmania to begin the fourth quarter with a 11-2 run and went up by double digits with five minutes to go. Both teams attacked the basket up close in the final period, but it wasn't until Anthony Drmic's three-point success that the Bullets were able to go ten points unanswered and close the gap late on.
Tasmania were keen to put the game to bed but Brisbane would not go lying down. With seconds left five points from Drmic made it a one point game and he had the last shot of the game, which missed. These two teams came into this match-up on the back of close wins and the battle between them followed suit, but it was the JackJumpers who prevailed by two points.
Elsewhere there was more Canadian-centric action to be had in the NBL. An early Melbourne United lead quickly turned around due to success from beyond the arc from the Illawarra Hawks, which continued into Q2 where the Hawks held the lead throughout.
Xavier Rathan-Mayes was most productive in the second half, going on to finish the game with eight points. Melbourne had more success in the paint later on, but the Hawks' shooting kept them at a comfortable advantage to the end. Antonious Cleveland led the Hawks with 20 points and 8 rebounds in their blowout 92-77 win over the league leaders.
Under Morrison once again, the short-handed Perth Wildcats blown out by Sydney Kings; opening by going down 21 after ten minutes they tried in vain to get back mostly from the low post. They were further hampered in their comeback attempt by Sydney having success all over the court and were unable to be contained. Bryce Cotton and Luke Travers both finished with twenty points for Perth, matched by Jalen Adams for Sydney in their 102-80 takedown of one of their biggest rivals.
After an eventful week in Australia, Perth and Illawarra are still sitting in the playoff zone, but their place in the post-season is not secure. Tasmania's two wins in the week put them equal fifth with South East Melbourne and are fully in contention, trailing them the Brisbane Bullets will have a harder time of staying alive beyond the regular season.
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