To The South: Best of the NBL Indigenous Round

For the first time, the NBL paid tribute to the native peoples of Australia with their 'Indigenous Round', which features team jerseys and arena floors designed with native-inspired art work. As always, the main focus was basketball and this penultimate round of the regular season did not disappoint.

The week opened with a close one in Cairns, where the Taipans' early eight-point lead was cut down to just one by the Brisbane Bullets, who briefly went in front before Nate Jawai led Cairns into a surge of scoring.

Brisbane hit four threes in a row to lead at half time, then their short-range shooting saw their advantage reach double-digits by the end of the third. As time ticked down Cairns closed a nine-point gap to just three, but then saw shot after shot attempt miss, while the Bullets held their nerve to see out the win by a final score of 101-96.

It was the beginning of an eventful week for the Taipans: in their next game with South East Melbourne they held the early lead before letting it get away from them. With the ball in Phoenix hands they took control of the game in the low post before their three-point shooters catapulted them into a seventeen-point lead.

A loss seemed to be on the cards for Cairns, but with a step-up in defence, three-point shooting and taking advantage of a lapse in form from the Phoenix, they completed an incredible comeback in the final period. They finished 94-87 ahead of SEM, with a team-high 22 from Majok Deng.

They finished the round on a low note, a heavy twenty-five point loss to Melbourne United, one of two games for the league leaders in the week. Earlier they faced long-standing rivals Sydney Kings at the Super Dome and led throughout the first period, despite the constant threat from the home team. Sydney finally struck in the third quarter, where they first tied the scores then go on to lead by sixteen.

Melborune regained their lead in the final period, but Tom Vodanovich was quick to react from three-point territory and, after seven lead changes in the last five minutes, the scores were tied and the game went to OT - but with both teams facing tough defence even that wasn't enough to separate the sides and a second overtime period was needed.

It went down to the wire again in the added five minutes, with no more than two points separating the teams in the last two minutes. A layup from Craig Moller for Sydney was followed by Jordan Hunter making one of two free-throws in the dying seconds to set the scores standing at 100-98, which after an attempt at a three by Chris Goulding fell short for Melbourne, would be the final score.

Here Sydney had avenged their loss earlier in the round to the Perth Wildcats, in the only fixture of the week for the defending champions. Playing the Kings at home they strengthened their quest for the first seed while weakening Sydney's playoff push after taking control in the second quarter, then continuing that form for the game's remainder to win 81-67.

The Indiginous Round was a good one for the Illawarra Hawks, who held on to third place in the ladder with two comprehensive wins: first over the struggling Adelaide 36ers, where Illawarra were in control for three quarters en route to finishing ahead 97-83.

Their second win against the New Zealand Breakers came in similar fashion: the Breakers had the early lead but the Hawks turned that around big time in the second half. Led by 30 points and 8 rebounds by Tyler Harvey, the win was Illawarra's 84-73.

Finally for the Breakers they faced the Brisbane Bullets, looking to change their losing form and upset the winning one of the visitors to Auckland. It wasn't to be, though: the Bullets did not look back after going up by double digits in the first few minutes. 30 points from Levi Randolph would not be enough to turn the game around for the Breakers and clean and confident basketball from Brisbane earned them their second win of the week, 95 points to 83.

This just leaves one round left to go before the playoffs, a last chance for the teams who have secured their post-season place to pick up some wins to strengthen their seeding and give them the best chance at the title. Until then, head over to the official NBL website for news and full stats on every game.

Picture Credit: Jaimi Joy