To The South: Three Fierce Battles Flip The NBL Script

Round four of the NBL season came to an end with three match-ups that looked exciting on paper and did not disappoint on court. The results here also made for some big changes in the league makeup, which may see some interesting developments as the season moves ahead.

South East Melbourne Phoenix vs The Hawks

A 10-2 run towards the end of the first half saw the Phoenix take a big lead after getting tangled up early on with the Hawks. The visitors to Melbourne were nowhere near as consistent in their scoring, even with good low-post work from Deng Adel, leaving SEM open to reach a twenty-point margin in the third quarter.

The Hawks were able to claw back some pride late in the game, but as far as the win went they fell far short and were resigned to their first loss of the season. With five of their players finishing with 15 points each – one being Ben Moore, who also grabbed fourteen total rebounds – SEM closed out the 98-82 win which moves them to fourth place in the league ladder.

Melbourne United vs Perth Wildcats

A heated, low-scoring start saw Perth ahead only by a John Mooney free-throw, but midway through the second quarter Chris Goulding put Melbourne ahead by seven, only for Perth to respond with an 8-0 run and eight more in the last two minutes of the half saw them head to the locker rooms ahead by five.

Melbourne did not take this lying down and levelled the scores by the end of the third quarter, and putting up the first eleven points of the fourth quarter, they took a double-digit advantage as the game started to wind down. Bryce Cotton scored a thunderous seven points in sudden succession and Todd Blanchfield followed by making it a two-point game, but in the final minute inspiration seemed to elude the Wildcats.

Jock Landale capped off the scoring for Melbourne with the last of his team-best 16 points, which took Melbourne's final score 75 to 71 over the defending champions. Cotton was the game leader with 24 points in what was an agonising loss for Perth.

Cairns Taipans vs New Zealand Breakers

These teams met for the second time in Round 4, but this follow-up proved a more one-sided affair than that from earlier in the week. Cairns’ greater success from three-point territory gave them the early advantage which they continued to build on – they led by six shortly after the game’s start, by double digits when the second quarter came around and then twenty points by the second half.

Thomas Abercrombie began a 10-1 run for the Breakers in the final period, but their late efforts fell far short of getting the win. Tai Webster finished as the top scorer for the Kiwi team with 13 points, while Majok Deng led all with 21 points and Scott Machado had 13 along with 11 total rebounds for the Taipans in their 84-69 win, their first in seven NBL games.

Picture: Mike Owen