NBL wrap - round 17

I had a very social weekend and wasn't in front of the computer at all. It now feels strange not posting or knowing what happened in the NBA and NBL for 2 or 3 days!

Here are the numbers that matter from a full round in the NBL:

36ers 106 Hawks 99

For the 36ers:

Luke Schenscher 25 points, 13 boards
Adam Ballinger 23 points, 10 boards
Brett Maher 20 points, 4 assists

For the Hawks:

Dusty Rychart 20 points, 13 boards
Glen Saville 20 points, 8 boards, 6 assists, 4 steals
Cameron Tragardh 20 points, 5 boards

A great crowd of 6300 on hand to see Julius Hodge not turn up for the game. The 36ers bigs (Schenscher and Ballinger) dominated without him but the Hawks hung tough on the road to keep it close. 36ers had just 8 turnovers for the game and 23 offensive boards that helped get them 25 more shots than the Hawks.

Taipans 81 Wildcats 77

For the Taipans:

Darnell Mee 15 points, 3 assists, 3 steals
Gary Boodnikoff 13 points, 6 boards
Ian Crosswhite 11 points, 9 boards

For the Wildcats:

Shawn Redhage 26 points, 7 boards
Peter Crawford 15 points, 7 assists, 5 boards
Isiah Victor 12 points, 9 boards

Ugly game on paper, which obviously suits the Taipans more. Cairns shot 36% from the field, Perth shot 35%. They won without many decent individual numbers. Hinson stunk it up going 1 of 13 from the field with 4 turnovers ... looking good for the Vlade Divac Flop of the Week! Wildcats are like the Crocs ... sometimes they're good, sometimes they're far from it.

36ers 107 Taipans 86

For the 36ers:

Luke Schenscher 24 points, 16 boards
Aaron Bruce 12 points, 8 assists, 5 boards, 4 steals
Adam Ballinger 11 points, 7 boards

For the Taipans:

Aaron Grabeau 16 points, 9 boards
Martin Cattalini 10 points, 7 boards

Balanced effort from the 36ers with 7 players scoring in double figures. Schenscher is putting up (Chris) Anstey style numbers! Tough for the Taipans to back up after their surprising win the night before against the Wildcats.

Spirit 88 Hawks 79

For the Spirit:

David Gruber 26 points
Matthew Knight 20 points, 10 boards

For the Hawks:

Dusty Rychart 21 points
Kavossy Franklin 19 points

Issues with the NBL boxscore link

Dragons 115 Breakers 112 in OT

For the Dragons:

Mark Worthington 27 points, 6 boards
Rhys Carter 25 points (including 6 triples), 4 assists
Adam Gibson 18 points (6 of 7 from the field), 3 boards

For the Breakers:

Kirk Penney 32 points (including 6 triples), 6 assists, 6 boards
Oscar Forman 20 points (including 6 triples), 8 boards
Rick Rickert 12 points, 10 boards

This was the blockbuster that everyone hoped for last time these two teams met. CJ Bruton returned to the line-up but obviously wasn't 100% playing just 19 minutes. Rhys Carter was the surprise hero for the Dragons ... before this game I couldn't tell you how he was still in the league! Full credit to coach Brian Goorjian, he's very good with young talent. Speaking of which, another no-show from Joe Ingles (5 points, 5 boards). Dragons had just 8 turnovers, Breakers had 22.

Crocs 115 Blaze 92

For the Crocs:

Corey Williams 25 points (8 of 10 from the field, 9 of 10 from the line)
Michael Cedar 22 points (including 5 triples), 5 assists, 5 boards
John Rillie 17 points (6 of 8 from the field, 5 of 7 from downtown), 6 boards

For the Blaze:

Luke Whitehead 30 points, 10 boards
James Harvey 18 points, 7 boards

The Crocs started the game with an incredible 19 - 0 run. Townsville won the boards (which is rare for them due to their lack of height) 45 - 29. Justin Bowen for the Blaze was playing ill and was a non-factor playing very limited minutes.

Tigers 108 Wildcats 81

For the Tigers:

Ebi Ere 32 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals
Chris Anstey 16 points, 7 boards, 4 steals
Luke Kendall 16 points (5 of 7 shooting)

For the Wildcats:

Alex Loughton 21 points, 4 boards
Paul Rogers 18 points, 7 boards
Shawn Redhage 13 points, 6 boards

The Tigers won the boards 50 - 39 and the turnovers 13 - 25. The Wildcats were held to just 36% from the field (Tigers 49%). Melbourne dominated the final term 32 - 13.

At the end of round 17, the Dragons have moved clear of the Breakers (on a 3 game losing streak) in 2nd. The Melbourne Tigers are 3rd and the Crocs move in to 4th on the back of a 3 game winning streak. The Blaze are still in last place with the Taipans 3 wins in front of them.

In news just to hand, Luke Schenscher has been named the NBL Player of the Week. Big Red had two big double-doubles this week ... 25 and 13 against the Hawks and 24 and 16 against the Taipans. JR will appreciate him delivering in two wins (albeit not against strong opposition) and I'm just pleased that the NBL have spelt his name right this week!

Now, to the Vlade Divac Flop of the Week. The runner up is Taipan Ian Crosswhite for his 3/15 from the field, 3 of 6 from the line and 3 turnovers performance against the 36ers. Crosswhite has had some big games this season but this wasn't one and he has been quite inconsistent. The hands-down winner/loser of the award this week is Darnell Hinson from the Perth Wildcats who shot 1 of 13 from the field and had 4 turnovers in a surprising loss to the lowly Taipans. 1 of 13 ... Darnell should've taken his finger off the trigger long before he got to double figure attempts!

Our Shooter of the Week as always is brought to you by Shooting Basketball Tips. We didn't give the award out last week because there weren't any outstanding performances, this week there were plenty. Nominations were Adam Gibson from the Dragons (6 of 7 from the field, 2 of 2 from downtown and 4 of 4 from the line in a win against the Breakers), Oscar Forman from the Breakers (7 of 12 from the line, 6 of 9 from downtown in a loss to the Dragons), Kirk Penney from the Breakers (32 points including 6 triples in a loss to the Dragons) and last but not least John Rillie from the Crocs (6 of 8 from the field, 5 of 7 from downtown in a win against the Blaze). The winner this week tho is Rhys Carter (pictured right) from the Dragons for his 25 points (in just 24 minutes), 8 of 13 from the field, 6 of 10 from downtown including the match-winner in overtime in the blockbuster against the Breakers. I'm not a fan of Rhys because he usually does very little and in the past has taken court-time off a few players I like and rate much higher than him. For his basketball shooting performance on the "big stage" against the Breakers tho, credit where credit is due. Nice shooting! If, like most, you've never heard of Rhys and want to find out more, click here.