The National Basketball League Quarter Finals opened in full swing as the Townsville Crocodiles hung on for a momentous 103-96 win on the Perth Wildcats’ home court. The sudden death matchup was highlighted by the phenomenal shooting of veteran John Rillie, who made a Finals record 10 three-pointers. The blogger lived up to his moniker, as JR, On Fire saved his good form for the money part of the season.
Rillie scored 34 points, including 10/17 from deep and 11/21 overall from the field. He seemed to have a single-minded pursuit of the long bomb for most of the game, as at three-quarter time he still had yet to record an assist, rebound, steal, block or turnover.
A few punters on OzHoops Boards were upset with the celebrations of Corey ‘Homicide’ Williams at the conclusion of the game, but surely fans are happy to see some excitement and controversy after the season we have had in Australia. Homicide had every right to be happy after he contributed 28 points on 11/14 shooting, in addition to eight rebounds and four steals — though he did give away seven turnovers.
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The all-time record for threes made in a game is 13 by Ian Davies, for Newcastle vs St Kilda on 5 May, 1985.
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The NBL match report is available here.
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Box score and shot chart can be found here.
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The Crocs next take on league leaders, the South Dragons on 24 February in a best-of-three semi-final.
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Tomorrow night sees the New Zealand Breakers (3) vs Adelaide 36ers (6). NBL official preview here. The winner will take on the Melbourne Tigers.
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CJ Bruton has already started the sob stories to get sympathy from the referees, with talk in this article about how unfairly treated the NZ Breakers are on the foul count.
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Has the JohnRillie.com banner competition been taken out by Russell Hinder? DJ Rod has posted this post-game photo.
