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WAYBACK Wednesday was a weekly feature I wrote last season for Adelaide 36ers website, which now you can revisit, see for the first time or completely ignore!

ADELAIDE 36ERS V CAIRNS TAIPANS

CAIRNS CONVENTION CENTRE, SEPTEMBER 18, 2005

ADELAIDE’s 92-90 win over the Taipans in Cairns almost ended in uproar when referees tried to bring the 36ers back to the stadium 30 minutes after declaring their win valid.

Cairns lodged a protest after controversy and furore erupted at Dusty Rychart's match-winning shot as time expired.

The officiating panel initially declared the basket “good” and the jubilant 36ers left the Cairns Convention Centre for their city hotel.

Half-an-hour later, acting-Adelaide coach Steve Breheny was ordered by referee Vaughan Mayberry to recall his charges and threatened with a forfeit unless they returned.

“I told him he couldn't declare a forfeit and that there is a procedure in place for Cairns to protest if it chose to do so,” Breheny said.

It was a rough night for Breheny after an emotional day for the 36ers with coach Phil Smyth returning to Adelaide late on gameday due to the death of his father Ralph.

An 11-0 run by the 36ers in which Jacob Holmes was prominent, allowed them to pull 80-70 clear with 7:39 left.

Inside the last two minutes, Taipans Gary Boodnikoff and Darnell Mee hit threes before Melvin Thomas tied up the game.

“They came down and tied it at 90-90 with 24.6 seconds left on the clock,” 36ers skipper Brett Maher said.

“I ran the (shot) clock down and whipped the ball to Dusty who shot it and it went in.”

The 24-second shot-clock expired after Rychart released the ball, making the shot legal.

Cairns' complaint was twofold.

On the one hand the Taipans wanted Rychart's shot disallowed for being late.

On the other, they wanted any time over the 24 seconds - the club was asking for 0.7 - to be reinstated to try for a game-tying or match-winning basket.

“The thing is, after the ball left Dusty's hands, it still takes about a second to go through, so we believed the referees got it right the first time when they counted the basket and time had expired,” Breheny said.

Cairns coach Alan Black was fuming but Mayberry said the result would stand.

Half an hour later, scoretable officials confirmed “an error” prompting Mayberry to recall the 36ers.

“In that hostile environment, it was never going to happen,” Breheny said, the 36ers complaining to Cairns security during the game about a pair of spectators overstepping the mark in verbal abuse. Their complaints ignored, the Sixers wanted no part of a venue return.

On the hardwood, Rychart had a sizzling game and the 36ers played terrific defence to shut down Martin Cattalini, recording their first win in Cairns since January, 2002.

The NBL subsequently dismissed Cairns' protest over the contentious finish and upheld Adelaide's 92-90 win.

League general manager Chuck Harmison viewed video footage of the controversial end-game.

The issue was Adelaide receiving the ball with 24.6 seconds left.

If Rychart’s shot beat the clock – which it did - the Taipans wanted 0.7 seconds to be played.

Their protest was based on the fact if Rychart's shot was legal, it had to have been shot before the 24-second limit, or at 23.9 seconds.

That should have given them 0.7 left to attempt a match-winning heave.

What the protest did not allow for was the time it took for the ball to travel from Rychart's release to the bottom of the net.

The officiating trio, led by Mayberry, declared the basket legal, players shook hands post-game and the 36ers left.

Black maintained his protestations and kept his team warming up on the court for a further 30 minutes as the referees wavered.

“After thoroughly reviewing all the pertinent evidence, the Taipans' appeal was dismissed and the NBL has upheld the referees' initial decision that the game was satisfactorily completed,” Harmison said.

Breheny maintained the 36ers had always believed the referees made the correct decision.

“The players left and I was obliged to hang around with one player, and that was Paul Rees, for any media interviews,” Breheny said.

The issue blew up while Breheny still was awaiting the game's official statistics.

The result was an excellent one for Adelaide which had lost to Townsville 100-108 on Friday at the Swamp.

Rychart was the star with 28 points but Jacob Holmes also came up big with 19, 12 in the last quarter.

Willie Farley collected 16 as Adelaide succeeded in shutting down Cattalini, who was averaging 30.5 points going into the game but finished with 14.

“The truth is, I wasn’t taking any chances,” Breheny later admitted.

“As soon as that siren went, I told the boys to get back to the hotel as fast as possible and straight into the swimming pool for their cool-down session.”

The 36ers have rarely moved faster.

TOMORROW: NBL CEO Fraser Neill on the latest expansion developments.