Breakers shoot down Hawks

BASKETBALL

Marc Hinton Thank goodness for Thomas Abercrombie. And Cedric Jackson, for that matter.

The Breakers’ perimeter pair stepped up big time to propel their side to a hard-earned revenge victory over the Wollongong Hawks at the NSEC last night.

The Breakers eventually prevailed 82-74 to extend their Australian NBL record to 16-6, but they trailed for much of a frustrating contest in which they not only had to deal with the Hawks but some terrible officiating.

To their credit, the Breakers were good enough not to let the one-way calling deflect them from their goal.

Brad Giersch was the worst offender among the officiating crew, the Aussie so exasperating the home players that he added two technical fouls to the host of calls he made against them.

But in the end the contributions of Abercrombie and Jackson were too much for the Hawks to handle. And so the Breakers had the revenge on the streak-busting 80-64 loss they suffered in Wollongong last Saturday night.

Abercrombie was simply

su- perb, especially in the final quarter when he picked apart the Hawks’ defence with a series of slashing moves to the hoop. The league’s fastest rising star finished with an impressive 25 points on 11-of-16 shooting, adding three boards, two assists, two steals and a pair of blocks.

Jackson still frustrates with his inability to finish at the rim, but there is no doubting the young man’s heart, commitment and speed. Last night he had 20 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals, and would have had more had he got a fair shake from the whistlers.

C J Bruton added a cool 13 points off the bench for the Kiwis and Gary Wilkinson slipped in with 10 and six boards in a largely low-key display. Dillon Boucher played through the pain in his big toe to provide his usual heady minutes off the bench, though an off-colour Daryl Corletto sat out the second half.

The Hawks had a solid spread of scoring, though the destroyer from last Saturday, Oscar Forman, was kept to just five points on twoof-six shooting.

It was a largely unimpressive opening half by the Breakers, though the referees did them no favours. Giersch missed a blatant goal tending and made a succession of bad calls that had the home fans in an uproar.

But still the Breakers were their own worst enemies as they trailed 16-18 after one quarter and 38-40 at the half. They let the pedestrian Hawks dictate pace and terms, and as a result never really got their game out of second gear.

The league leaders shot well enough from the field (48 per cent) and their defence was much improved – Hawks stars Forman and Ayinde Ubaka had a combined four points – but the flow of the opening 20 minutes was seldom what they wanted.

But eventually the Breakers found enough momentum to edge ahead 56-54 at the end of the penultimate quarter and from there the bounce-back win was in hand.