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To My Wife Have a top night!!! Geoff |
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Hi Mum We will have a fantastic time!!! Tanya |
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To My Wife Have a top night!!! Geoff |
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Hi Mum We will have a fantastic time!!! Tanya |
The Cairns Taipans beat the Hunter Pirates
88-80 in their National Basketball League elimination final at
the Cairns Convention Centre on Thursday night
The loss means Hunter is now out of the NBL finals and Cairns
will go on to meet the Adelaide 36ers in the quarter-finals on
Saturday night
In a very physical encounter, Taipans centre Chris Burgess came
off the court in the third-quarter after injuring his ankle
The Taipans dominated in rebounds, minus their injured centre,
and took full advantage of free-throw opportunities
Martin Cattalini top-scored for Cairns with 24 points, followed
by Burgess on 16
Ben Melmeth was the stand-out scorer for the Pirates with 29 points
with Mike Helms next on 16
Cairns co-captain Anthony Stewart said Burgess' injury is a concern
leading into the quarter-finals
"He had ankle surgery in the off-season so that's a bit of
a worry how he comes back, but we've got some other players that
can step up and we'll be ready for Saturday night" he said
A heroic last-gasp three-pointer
from veteran Anthony Stewart stunned Adelaide and took Cairns
into the NBL semi-finals with a heart-stopping overtime victory
at the Distinctive Homes Dome tonight
A last moment Oscar Forman bucket had allowed the Sixers to sneak
into overtime, and scores were still level with three seconds
left
However Stewart found his range from the corner to knock out Adelaide
and take the Taipans into a best-of-three match-up with the Sydney
Kings
Gary Boodnikoff and Aaron Grabau top-scored for the Taipans with
20 each, while Darnell Mee had 12 critical points in the last
term to finish with 16
Dusty Rychart (25), Willie Farley (24) and Brett Maher (17) did
the heavy lifting for the Sixers
Import Chris Burgess recovered from his sore ankle in time to
play, and Cairns began with the confidence of a side that had
monstered Adelaide in their last meeting, nabbing an early six
point margin
The Sixers intensity gradually increased, however, climaxing in
an 11-0 tear that drew deafening early roars from the crowd and
allowed Adelaide a 30-26 term one lead
The lead was nine before long into the second and looked like
being more until Nathan Crosswell stepped in
He poured in 13 points for the quarter on six of seven shooting
to ensure Cairns matched the Sixers in the minutes to half-time,
which arrived at 55-51
The Taipans went to the front in term three, holding Adelaide
to a mere 15 points while collecting 20 of their own
They built a six point lead via Stewart's pair of triples, though
by the final break it was back to one, 70-71, after Farley's late
jumper bobbled in
Term four was evenly contested and hot-tempered
A pair of debatable travel calls raised the ire of the crowd and
former Sixer Mee made it worse by sinking a three after the second
The lead changed hands numerous times as the match entered its
final minute, Mee landing a jumper to put Cairns up by one inside
the last 30 seconds
He was fouled with four seconds remaining but could make only
one of two, and somehow Forman was on hand to complete a tying
lay-up at 96-96 as the buzzer sounded
Overtime was as frenzied as the entire game had been, Farley's
foul shot tying it up with less than 30 seconds to go
After Mee soaked up the clock and Adelaide twice knocked it out
of bounds, it was left to Stewart to close it out
Upon making the shot he was overrun by a mass of his cheering
teammates
Sydney is looking to sweep its way to a fourth consecutive NBL championship series after landing a serious body blow to the Cairns Taipans in game one of their best-of-three semi-final series last night
The Sydney Kings will contest
their fourth consecutive Philips NBL Championship against the
Melbourne Tigers after a thrilling 84-82 win over the Cairns Taipans
at the Cairns Convention Centre on Friday night
Luke Kendall netted a game-high 21 points (8-of-16) for the defending
champions, with strong support down the stretch from Ben Knight
(17 points) and Sedric Webber (10 points, 6 rebounds)
Chris Burgess fought to keep his side in the playoffs with his
19 points and 25 boards, and along with Martin Cattalini (19 points)
and Anthony Stewart (14 points) ensured the Kings would have to
fight all the way
Sydney Kings head coach Brian Goorjian said the future of the
NBL looked bright following the nail-biting finish
"If we can get this like this here, and in Townsville and
in Adelaide, this is how our league becomes special" Goorjian
said
"Tonight it wasn't spectacular basketball, but it was an
absolute dogfight and it was exciting
We knew that Cairns would lift, and they wouldn’t back down
and they would give us their all for 48 minutes" he said
Sydney's defensive effort was consistent throughout all four quarters,
forcing Cairns to turn the ball over 23 times to Sydney's 12,
while the Kings reserves turned in 42 points to the Taipans' 14
Knight was the only King on his team's scoresheet as he nailed
Sydney's first 10 points on the way to 12 for the quarter
Neither side could establish any momentum in the low-scoring quarter,
aggressive man-to-man defence keeping the scores close as the
Kings took a slim 21-19 lead into the first break
Cairns edged ahead to a 31-27 lead after a 12-6 start to second
quarter, but a Kendall three and Brad Sheridan free-throw had
the game tied at 31-31 just minutes later
Scores remained close for the rest of the quarter, CJ Bruton netting
nine points as Sydney fought through four more lead changes to
take a 46-44 advantage into half-time
A Stewart three took the Taipans to the lead early in the second
half, and scores were locked at 51-48 for over two minutes, a
Burgess double breaking the drought with less than seven minutes
to play
Neither side led by more than two points for much of the quarter,
but a 7-1 run sent the visitors to the final quarter with a 64-59
advantage
Sydney continued its offensive onslaught after the final break,
opening up a 12-point break (74-62) within minutes of the teams
returning to the floor
But the home side was far from out of the contest, capitalising
on crucial second chance shots and Kings turnovers to close within
three points (74-71) with four minutes to play
Three-pointers from Stewart and Cattalini ensured the Taipans
stayed close to the Kings and guaranteed a thrilling finish, with
the visitors leading 82-79 with just 25 seconds remaining
Cairns had the chance to send the game to overtime in the final
seconds, but a short Cattalini jump-shot rimmed out, ensuring
Sydney would hold to complete a 2-0 semi-final sweep and book
a berth in the NBL Finals against the Melbourne Tigers
"You have a five-foot shot, that's (Cattalini's) specialty,
to tie it up
I was convinced we were going to overtime and for it to rim out
was sad" said Taipans head coach Alan Black of the Taipans'
close call
"I said to the guys 'just do your best', and everyone out
there worked their tails off and I couldn't be prouder of them
"Congratulations to the Kings - they played great basketball
and have all year"
The Taipans were without sharpshooter Gary Boodnikoff, who succumbed
to an ankle injury early in game one, but Black would not consider
whether the result would have been different had he been able
to play
"You can 'if' and 'but' and whatever, but we're not using
any excuses, we had the players out there and were one shot from
tying it up" Black said.
"(We had) some huge shots and defensive plays
The energy out there was terrific; the guys were playing on adrenalin,
and I was proud to be a part of it"
Minor premier Sydney Kings now have a week's rest before they
host the Melbourne Tigers in the first game of the 2006 NBL Finals
Sydney Kings 84 (Kendall 21, Knight 17, Webber 10)
Cairns 82 (Burgess 19, Cattalini 15, Stewart 14)
At The Cairns Convention Centre, 17/02/06