AUCKLAND (NBL) - Young New Zealand Tall Blacks sensation Tom Abercrombie burst on to the international scene this year during his country’s European tour and impressive FIBA Oceania Championship win, and he made the biggest splash of his professional career in week 8 of Oceania’s NBL competition.

Abercrombie scored 23 points on 9/16 shooting as his club side, the New Zealand Breakers, defeated the first placed Perth Wildcats, 83-74, in Auckland. The 22-year old’s improvement has been so rapid that some see him as a certain member of New Zealand’s starting five at next year’s FIBA World Championship.

For Perth, Olympian Shawn Redhage (18 points, 13 rebounds) had an enthralling dual with former FIBA World Championship and Olympic starter Dillon Boucher (4 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 blocks, 2 steals), while super impressive youngster Stephen Weigh collected 15 points for the losers.

Weigh, a 202cm swingman, continued his strong push for a flight to Turkey two nights later, nailing 22 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists as the Wildcats defeated the Cairns Taipans 79-64.

The result capped a bad week for Cairns, who had lost 85-70 to Townsville earlier in the round. While star New Zealander Phill Jones scored 17 points on 8/12 shooting for the Taipans, livewire Townsville guards Corey Williams (21 points, 8/13 fg) and Michael Cedar (20 points, 7/13 fg) were the stars of the show in the easy win.

It was the first of three games in four days for Townsville, who followed it up with a 93-77 loss to the Gold Coast Blaze on Friday night.

Only Australian Boomers fringe player Peter Crawford (27 points, 5 rebounds, 6/9 3pfg) put up any resistance for Townsville, as the Blaze’s Anthony Petrie (14 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists), Ayinde Ubaka (17 points, 8 assists) and 213cm Australian junior representative Greg Vanderjagt (15 points, 8 rebounds) led a superb team performance in front of a big Gold Coast crowd.

Townsville bounced back strongly the following night, as the Crocodiles put on a show in Melbourne to defeat the Tigers 98-91 in a high quality game.

Crawford was again his team’s best with 19 points, ably supported by 2006 FIBA World Championship representative Russell Hinder (15 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists) and Cedar (13 points).

Former Denver Nugget and excitement machine Julius Hodge returned to the NBL with the Tigers, and had a mixed performance with 22 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, but 6 turnovers and some crucial poor decisions down the stretch which allowed the Crocs to secure a memorable victory.

Next best for Melbourne were Australia’s 2007 U19 FIBA World Championship centre Daniel Johnson (20 points), and veteran internationals Mark Worthington (15 points) and Sam Mackinnon (13 points).

The final match of the round saw the surprising Wollongong Hawks travel to Adelaide to take on the 36ers in a much anticipated encounter.

New Hawks import Ty McKee has been the talk of the town in Wollongong, but veteran 36ers American Cortez Groves easily won his dual with McKee, collecting 15 points on 6/11 fg and 9 assists while keeping McKee to 6 points on 3/14 shooting with a little help from teammates.

Naturalised Australian Adam Ballinger maintained his push for a FIBA World Championship spot with 17 points and 7 rebounds for Adelaide. Wollongong were paced by captain Matt Campbell (22 points, 7 rebounds) and exciting young power forward Cam Tragardh (18 points, 8/13 fg).

Week 9 of the NBL sees former Olympian and Townsville Crocs star John Rillie, who was recently signed by the Breakers, return to Townsville in one of the match-ups of the season, which also sees CJ Bruton and Corey Williams – the league’s premier point guards – go head to head.

The other match of the round sees the Gold Coast Blaze host the Perth Wildcats in what should be a high scoring shoot-out complete with eight FIBA internationals.

Paulo Kennedy
FIBA