Blaze win and Gibbo gets POTW

Going in to this round the Gold Coast Blaze were looking a little shaky having dropped two games in a row, had been without Adam Gibson for a couple of games and then lost playmaker Ayinde Ubaka to injury.

Saturday saw the Melbourne Tigers come to the coast with momentum on their side and their season on the line. With the Breakers also finally stringing some wins together the Blaze needed a win to solidify their top 4 spot.

The Tigers came out strong and led after the first quarter but Gold Coast stepped up narrowly winning the next three quarters and after a big 3 on the buzzer from Mark Worthington the game moved in to overtime. In the final term tho Erron Maxey stepped up and the Blaze dominated 12 - 4 to get the important win.

News came out today that Adam Gibson was named Player of the Week for his contribution to the Blaze's victor. Gibbo had 15 points, 12 assists & 7 boards against the Tigers. Great numbers from Adam and the 12 assists is the stand-out stat for me, especially in the shortened 40 minutes of action.

Looking ahead, this week the Gold Coast Blaze play Perth at home on Friday and then head to the 'Gong to take on the Hawks. Hopefully the Blaze can take some revenge on the Hawks after the stinker they put up last time they played. In the final round of the regular season Gold Coast are away to the Breakers and the Tigers.

As teams jockey position to make the top four coach Joey Wright believes they need two more wins to ensure their spot in the playoffs.

Gold Coast Blaze vs Wollongong Hawks

It had been a few weeks since I'd seen a Gold Coast Blaze game live and with the Wollongong Hawks in town, the top of the table clash seemed like the perfect opportunity.

With their Brisbane Bullets and Northside Wizards connections, a number of my friends were also at the game and thankfully we weren't the only ones and there was a decent crowd in attendance. They still have a long way to go before the stadium is full but it was probably the best crowd I've seen so far this season.

Here are my thoughts from the game:

• I'm not sure why Ayinde Ubaka (pictured right) came off the bench and didn't enter the game until a minute left in the first quarter. Check news articles in the next day or so as I'm sure the real story will come out.
• There were again times early in the game when the Blaze defence looked awful
• Erron Maxey has noticably cooled off from his hot start in the NBL
• Tywain McKee is very similar to Corey Williams in that when they want they really want to score, its extremely tough to stop them
• Cameron Tragardh is an offensive machine
• The game came down to a battle between Ubaka (28 points including 6 triples, 5 assists) and McKee (24 points, 5 assists)

The 88 - 84 win now moves the Blaze to top of the NBL ladder which is great considering they still have so much upside/room for improvement.

Gold Coast Blaze vs Cairns Taipans

I didn't make the trip down the coast last night. Traffic would have been rough not to mention that its the what used to be Indy, then SuperGP, now V8 weekend in Surfers. For this reason (V8's), I'm not surprised to see that it was another disappointing crowd of roughly 2400 which is less than 1/2 the stadium's capacity.

From reading the game recap on the NBL website, this is the most pleasing part:
"but it was the defense of the Coast that was most impressive in a sign that the bottom placed team had turned the corner"
In the two games I've seen so far this season the Blaze have struggled on the defensive end getting killed on the boards and general allowing easy buckets. As the team gels and learns Coach Joey Wright's system, this was something that I knew would improve eventually.

Here's the other highlights from the game/boxscore:

• Ayinda Ubake (Chewbacca) top scored with 25 points (9 of 12 from the field) including 4 triples
• Anthony Petrie was a beast defensively with 10 points, 4 boards, 5 blocks and 2 steals
• Dusty Rychart was well and truly shut-down scoring just 2 points and 5 turnovers
• Erron Maxey was again solid with 15 points, 7 boards
  

The Blaze convincingly won the game 80 - 63 despite not getting much on the offensive end from young-guns Adam Gibson, Chris Goulding or Greg Vanderjagt. The win takes the Gold Coast Blaze off the bottom of the ladder and when they get all cylinders firing look for them to make a move up the leaderboard.

Ayinde Ubaka (Chewbacca) led the Blaze in scoring

Gold Coast Blaze recap

As mentioned, I made the trip down the coast for the Gold Coast Blaze's first game against the Townsville Crocodiles. I had organised a date (a girl I went out with a few times last year who lives on the coast) but she was working till later so we didn't end getting to our seats until half way through the first quarter. I haven't been late for a game since before I started working for the Brisbane Bullets and a friend and I had season tickets. We used to often rock up to games at the end of the first or start of the second quarter ... partly because the team was terrible at the time.

Anyway, here are my thoughts from the game:

• I was disappointed by the crowd numbers, the stadium was probably only 60 - 65% full
• The Brisbane Convention Centre used to be nicknamed The Library, the atmosphere at the Gold Coast Entertainment Centre would probably now have that dishonour
• I really noticed the shorter 10 minute quarters, they really seemed to fly
• James Harvey (24 points, 9 of 13 from the field) is in very good form early in the season, coming off the work he did in the off-season with Adam Darragh and Shane Heal, not to mention his time touring with the Boomers.
• Blaze import Michael Joiner did VERY little during the game
• The other Blaze import Ayinde Ubaka had a strong second-half when the Crocs contained Harvey (Ubaka finished with 19 points, 8 assists)
• The Crocs have a very balanced scoring attack and if they're hitting from downtown will trouble the opposition
• The Blaze will take time to gel and find their chemistry on-court (to be expected with so many personnel changes). They seemed out of sync on both ends of the court at times and struggled to get the ball to the right person (i.e. Harvey)

It was good to see a lot of familiar faces in the crowd. Players wise I saw Thalo Green and Stephen Broom prior to the game and ran in to Adam Darragh afterwards. The "celebrities" in the crowd were Scotty Prince from the Gold Coast Titans, Jamie Wincup (racing car driver) and Bree Amer (Big Brother).