Last shot stops the Bullets
Abercrombie’s late score earns thrilling victory for Breakers
For the second time in three days the Brisbane Bullets have been robbed of victory with a final-second heartbreaker, this time at home to the New Zealand Breakers.
After a Bryce Cotton dagger sunk the Bullets in Perth on Friday night, Thomas Abercrombie had ice in his veins as his last-gasp jump shot led the New Breakers to an 85-84 win at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on Sunday.
It was a situation the Breakers never should have found themselves in. A slick team performance and sublime shooting display from Patrick Richard (21 points including 6/11 from long range) allowed them to push out to a 23-point lead in the second quarter.
Brisbane stunned the visitors, though, with a furious 23-9 third quarter that put them firmly back in the match.
Abercrombie, New Zealand’s alltime leading scorer, finished with 15 points, five rebounds and three assists, admitted the last play was “a bit of a mess” but praised his teammates for fending off the Bullets’ comeback.
“I just found the ball in my hands and let it fly,” he said.
“We lost it a little bit [in the third quarter], lost our heads and they did a great job getting after it defensively. But we regrouped in the fourth quarter and found a way to come up with the win.”
Brisbane veteran Adam Gibson again turned back the clock with 17 points, but more importantly his leadership and defence across the court played a starring role in the thwarted comeback.
“We showed what happens when we do play the right way, but it’s not good enough from our group to come out in that first half and be down by that big margin,” he said.
“So we’ve got a lot of work to do. We know we’re a great team if we play the right way, but you can’t give teams leads like that in this competition. It’s just too hard.”
Reuben Te Rangi continued his charge towards the Most Improved Player Award this season with 14 points — most of them achieved at clutch moments in the second half.
There were early defensive lapses from the Bullets, with Corey Webster and Shea Ili gifted open looks from beyond the three-point line which they lapped up to push out to a 12-6 advantage.
Brisbane coach Andrej Lemanis was colourful in his response, pulling his charges in for a timeout and not mincing his words.
The Bullets responded with a fivepoint run to close the gap, Te Rangi draining a triple of his own to remind the NBL he can no longer be left unchecked from deep.
Former Philadelphia 76ers centre Shawn Long made his mark on the match, elevating for a monster dunk before joining the three-point party to push the Breakers lead out to nine.
Brisbane grafted their way back into the match as new import Lamar Patterson provided some serious energy — but a late triple from Richard meant the Breakers took a 28-21 lead into the first break.
By that point the visitors had already rattled up nine assists, putting on a team basketball clinic to confuse the Bullets defence.
New Zealand opened the second quarter at a furious pace as well, with Ili opening with a long bomb before Jarrad Weeks rejected Paterson, allowing Richard to streak back down court and drop yet another triple as the lead ballooned out to 36-21.
It took two-and-a-half minutes in the quarter before Brisbane could even register a point, Te Rangi hitting a triple that ended a 13-point New Zealand run.
From there New Zealand proceeded to tear the Bullets’ defence to shreds. The Breakers had rattled up 16 assists by halftime as they moved the ball expertly and were lethal from long range with 11/20 from beyond the arc.
At one point, New Zealand led by 21 points as Richard went ballistic on 4/6 shooting from the three-point line, the Breakers ultimately taking a 54-39 lead into the main break.
Staring at the scoreboard, staring down the barrel, rising Brisbane star Te Rangi decided enough was enough. The Tall Blacks leader made his countrymen pay in a furious third quarter cameo, reeling off three straight baskets and a block to stop the rot.
Jason Cadee provided the icing on the cake with a triple that closed the gap to just six points and in the blink of an eye the Bullets had roared back into the match.
In the final minutes of the term Gibson nailed an important long bomb to cut the lead to just two. Cam Gliddon followed to cut it to just one. Then a Gibson bucket put them in front for the first time in the match.
The 23-9 run from Brisbane consigned New Zealand to the lowest scoring third quarter of the NBL all season and gave the near sellout crowd a huge voice heading into the final term.
Both teams went blow for blow until Abercrombie nailed the clutch bucket to seal the win.— nbl.com.au
I just found the ball in my hands and let
it fly. Tom Abercrombie