Breakers lose game and leader
Injury to insult as Abercrombie hurt, playoffs slip away
The monkey is off the back of the Perth Wildcats who shook off the New Zealand Breakers 98-84 at RAC Arena on Sunday night. The dogged, rebuilt Breakers tormented the Wildcats over the last month with two thrilling wins including an 83-78 victory in Perth last month.
New Zealand were the only side in #NBL21 that the Wildcats didn’t have a winning record against prior to Sunday’s game in front of a crowd of 10,518, but that has now been set straight and keeps Perth’s chances of finishing the regular season atop the ladder alive.
It has been a brave season for the Kiwis but this loss has all but ended their chances of playing finals basketball. Making matters worse, inspirational skipper Thomas Abercrombie limped from the court with a suspected hamstring injury in the final minutes when the game was already gone.
Import Levi Randolph was absent again for this clash but is understood to be a game-by-game proposition and might be in the mix for New Zealand’s match against the Phoenix in Melbourne on Wednesday. Corey Webster is also on the injured list.
Bryce Cotton was dominant from the first whistle with 32 points, 10 assists and six rebounds for the Wildcats. John Mooney stuffed the stat sheet as well with 27 points, nine rebounds and four assists while Todd Blanchfield continued his big year with 18 points including five triples.
Finn Delany (21 points, three assists) and Tai Webster (20 points, seven rebounds) paced the Breakers but having both of them foul out when the game was on the line in the final quarter ended any chance they had of another upset.
It was Groundhog Day for Breakers coach Dan Shamir who conceded they were looking at losing Abercrombie for several games, the last thing they needed after an injury punctuated season.
“It is sad, but we will have to overcome this too. It looks like he has hurt his hamstring, we have to see what exactly that means but it doesn’t look good.”
Shamir did praise his side for staying in the fight as long as they did.
“We came in here a little shorthanded, we survived for quite some time but we just didn’t have what we needed for the last few minutes,” he said.
“Hats off to Perth, they are a great team . . . we gave it everything but they were just better.” — nbl.com.au