We had 5 games to watch this weekend it was an interesting round with apart from anyone playing Perth most of the home teams taking away the wins. Perth managed to again get 2 back to back wins over the weekend carried by the amazing talent that is James Ennis.
In game one of the round we saw the New Zealand Breakers take on the Perth Wildcats in New Zealand. The Wildcats were the underdogs according to the bookies in this game paying out $2.60 in a game i expected to be very close. The Wildcats pulled away from the Breakers and never looked back winning 89-96. James Ennis had another big night finishing with 29 points 6 rebounds and 2 assists and if he stays for the full season he should be a lock for the MVP. For the breakers Kerron Johnson top scored with 17 points and 5 rebounds. The Breakers have since decided to let import forward Darnell Lazare go and to recruit former Breakers player Gary Wilkinson back into the line up. This should give them some extra fire power going up against the Adelaide 36ers next round.
Friday night was the Cairns Taipans taking on the Adelaide 36ers in Cairns. Adelaide managed to get the win over the Taipans behind some last quarter heroics from Mitch Creek who can often be a bit unpredictable as to what type of night he is going to have, but finished with 14 points with some crucial 3 pointers down the stretch. This was a game of quarters with both teams taking it in turns as to who controlled the quarter. The Taipans had an 18 point lead in the first half and an 11 point lead going into the final quarter but the 36ers got the shots when it counted and won by 3, (87-84). Creek top scored for the 36ers with 14 followed closely by Adam Gibson, Anthony Petrie and Jarrid Frye with 13. For the Taipans forward Alex Loughton looked
unstoppable for large portions of the game and finished with 22 points followed by Jamar Wilson with 17.
The Wollongong Hawks took on the Townsville Crocodiles at home on Saturday where they managed to get the win 85-81 on their 1000th game in the NBL. Wollongong's Imports Kevin Tiggs and Rotnei Clark supplied most of the fire power for the Hawks with Clark finishing with 23 and Tiggs with 20. It was a tight game with Townsville never letting them break away but it was a timely steel by Rotnei Clark and 7 straight points from Kevin Tiggs including a nice alley oop off a pass from Rhys Martin that got them over the line in the final quarter. Jacob Holmes was hitting every shot around the keyway and top scored for the Crocodiles finishing with 14.
Sunday was a double header with two teams playing that had already played this round.
The Perth Wildcats managed to get their 5th straight win of the season against the Sydney Kings in Sydney. It was a close game up until the fourth quarter when the Kings couldn't get anything going on offense and the Wildcats were unstoppable on their end of the court. Jermaine Beal looks to have his shot working and top scored for the game with 24 points and he sparked the 14 point run in the final quarter that secured the Wildcats the win. James Ennis was again unstoppable finishing with 18. For the kings AJ Ogilvy top scored with 17 followed by some hot shooting from Ben Madgen who is still recovering from injury with 15 points.
The Final game of the round saw the Adelaide 36ers take on the Melbourne Tigers in Melbourne. Melbourne managed to get the win 93-79 behind some amazing shooting from Chris Goulding who finished with 29 points of 11-22 shots. The Tigers managed to hold off the tiring 36ers who played only 36 hours before against Cairns. There was a nice battle between the ex Gold Coast players of Mark Worthington and Chris Goulding for the Tigers and Anthony Petrie, Adam Gibson and Jason Cadee for the 36ers. Mark Worthington had a tough night and couldn't get anything to drop through the basket early but managed to finally get some shot and drives to go in through the second half finishing with 17 points. For the 36ers Daniel Johnson was imposing under the basket and top scored for his team with 20 followed by Gary Ervin with 16 and Anthony Petrie with 15 points on the night.
This was an entertaining round with some big plays from some of the stars of the league and all my bets managed to come in. Its great to see the league with more parity between teams this season with the exception being Perth for now. I'm looking forward to next round and ill try to give my tips before round 4 begins on Halloween.
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