Basketball On The Internet.

NEW Wollongong replacement import Malcolm Grant will make his debut on Australia Day against reigning NBL champion New Zealand at The Sandpit.

A 185cm guard from University of Miami, Grant was a college teammate of Lance Hurdle, who he replaces after the North All Star and Slam Dunk Contest runner-up had surgery on Friday to repair an ACL tear.

Grant is expected in Australia today, at about the time Rhys Martin undergoes surgery to repair his torn ACL, the twin knee injuries threatening to derail Wollongong's recent rocky road which included road losses to the Breakers and Townsville this past round.

In the same way Darnell Mee once recommended Kevin Brooks to Adelaide 36ers - and we can all remember how that worked out - Hurdle recommended Grant to the Hawks.

With eight losses in their past nine games, the Hawks need a fillip and Grant looks sure to provide it.

IN CASE you haven't been following it, a plane landed in Perth on Friday and young Rhys Carter, formerly of Sweden, alighted.

Now I'm not suggesting, as already done in these blog pages on December 11, Rhys might be preparing to take on the back-up point guard role vacated by The Buccaneer's shock mid-season retirement but Carter did play for The Sensei previously at West Sydney.

Pretty sure when Brad Robbins surrendered to his body's decline, two of the first words out of Sensei Bevo's mouth would have been: "Get Carter!"
  
The South Dragons championship winner and former Adelaide 36er - released for no reason anyone can understand but that's how we roll in the city of lurches - would be a very handy acquisition in any Wildcats' title run.

Expect him to suit against Townsville on Friday.

OUR latest Aussie WNBA championship winner, Erin Phillips, has had her holiday at home in Adelaide cut short, answering an SOS to return to Poland.

Phillips, the point guard the Opals didn't need in London apparently, but who did pretty well at Indiana Fever, will be suiting up again for Team Wisla Krakow, hoping for "championship number four in Poland".

WNBL championship #1 with Lightning in 2008 or WNBA championship #1 with Fever in 2012 would take some beating though for the 173cm, 27-year-old. Not to mention a 2006 World Championship Gold Medal with the Opals.

REVIEWS

Lightning v Thunder (W)

DO YOU think the memory of that 27-point road loss to Logan a fortnight back was weighing on Adelaide in this re-match as it slapped back 97-61?

Lightning clearly had just sat through a screening of "Scarface" and came out spouting: "You wanna play rough? OK. Say hello to my little friend," before mowing down the Thunder with 31-17 and 23-11 second-and-third quarters.

Laura Hodges went 20 and 12, The Batgirl had 18 and Jenni Screen went 12 and 8 to be Olympic stand-outs, Nadeen Payne right up there with them with 13 and 8.

Adelaide won the boards 50-31 and held Logan to 31 per cent shooting.

Breakers v Hawks (M)

ADRIS Deleon did everything expect knock down a free throw which would have forced overtime for Wollongong, finally beaten 72-71 by reigning champion New Zealand in Auckland.

But 2Hard2Guard can be forgiven, going for 34 points and playing 38:10 in the contest, while also dishing an equal-game-high six assists.

With Rhys Martin and Lance Hurdle both having ACL surgeries - and the best wishes of all genuine basketball lovers go out to both - it was a colossal effort from the Hawks who led by as many as 12 (42-30) during the third quarter, Auryn Macmillan continuing to seize his chances and Oscar Forman leading from the front.

The Breakers' depth eventually wore away Wollongong and its persistence on the boards (20 offensive rebounds) proved a telling difference.

Tom Abercrombie led an even spread of scorers as the Breakers burst six clear in the last before Larry Davidson brought the Hawks storming back.

Spirit v Fire (W)

GABRIELLE Richards had 29 points at 54 per cent and 11 rebounds as Bendigo put Townsville into the hot-seat 80-72.

Fire centre Jess Adair fouling out in 10 minutes of court-time didn't help one iota as Kristi Harrower paired 12 points with 10 assists and Bendigo bumped its lead out as far as 18 points.

Townsville went down firing, Olivia Thompson with a 12-11 double-double and Kayla Standish 14-8 but with the Spirit keen to secure a home final, a gallant loss was the best the Fire could muster.

Wildcats v Taipans (M)

PERTH was honoring Heritage Round by wearing its Westate Wildcats outfits, the Taipans honoring their 2004 ABA champion in Cairns Marlins uniforms.

The Marlins beat Shawn Redhage's ABA crew in 2004 and maybe the sight of those opposition uniforms inspired him to a season-high 26 points, plus seven boards in Perth's 86-64 triumph.

Everard Bartlett had a career-best 16 points, sinking 4-of-6 threes in the process.

Another 11,808 Wild 'Cats fans came along to Perth Arena to witness this, the home team minus Jesse Wagstaff to boot.

On the plus side for Cairns, it scored in the teens in every quarter.

Capitals v Rangers (W)

LAST round it was a 21-0 start to the final quarter by Dandenong against Sydney, this time it was a 26-9 final period against Canberra to ice a 98-73 win.

Monica Wright and Kathleen MacLeod, with 23 and 22 points respectively, turned it on for the Rangers, Krista Phillips with 13 points despite fears of a possible ingrown toenail.

Canberra gave this a better go than the final line suggests, Jess Bibby with 18 points, Carly Wilson and Brigitte Ardossi 13 apiece. The Caps led 61-60 late in the third before they hit the wall, unable to continue competing with Dandenong's depth and size.

Yeah. A few teams have had that problem, frankly.

Kings v Tigers (M)

IF ADRIS Deleon is 2Hard2Guard, then Jonny Flynn finally showed he can be 2Hot2Handle, going off for 19 first-half points for Melbourne as it beat Sydney 77-74.

Flynn finished with 27 points and Chris Goulding continued his emergence into elite company with 18.

But this was far from over as Ian Crosswhite realised his own great heritage and went off for 27 points at 92 per cent, with 13 rebounds to keep Sydney in the contest.

Crossy missed just one shot, his 11-of-12 from the floor including 1-of-1 three-point attempts, plus he was 4-of-4 from the stripe.

But in the end, it wasn't enough as the Kings guards Ben Madgen, Corin Henry and Aaron Bruce were a combined 7-of-32 from the floor.

Clearly not thrilled to start the game on the bench, Darnell Lazare had a 10-point, 9-rebound night to be among the Kings' best.

Boomers v Fire (W)

BULLEEN started this like a house on fire with a mid-first quarter 9-0 run which set up a 23-14 lead over Townsville.

With so much at stake, the desperation was evident as Townsville only drew two points closer in the second quarter. But the Fire were seeing 20-20 after that, with 20-point third and fourth periods to which Bulleen replied with 11 and 9, watching its top-four hopes evaporate 78-65.

Jess Adair led the Fire with a 16-10 double-double, Kayla Standish delivered her 18 points at 75 per cent, Jess Foley had 11 and 8 while Olivia Thompson dropped 13 points.

Rachel Jarry had a 14-13 double-double for Bulleen, a team laden with talent but struggling with chemistry.

Crocodiles v Hawks (M)

WOLLONGONG already knew it had a star import with Gary Ervin so the Hawks had no reason to doubt it. But just for good measure, Ervin banged in 26 points at 57 per cent against his old team, dished four assists and grabbed seven rebounds to underpin Townsville's 82-74 win.

The Hawks hung tough - because any Gordie McLeod team is always going to - slashing an 18-point deficit back to seven late.

But Townsville had the answers, Ervin and Peter Crawford hitting key threes to stem the flow.

Luke Nevill again was a factor inside, the Crocs with a 6-1 record since he was recruited to replace Ben Allen.

Oh. Wait. Sorry. Ben Allen is still there. He is just invisible as a contributor, unless you rate four fouls in seven minutes.

Waves v Thunder (W)

KRISTEN Veal had a vintage game to lead Logan to a comfortable 84-62 rout over West Coast in Perth.

Veally had 20 points and game highs in rebounds (7) and assists (6) as Logan recovered from Friday night's mow down by Adelaide's Gangster Squad to seize control after halftime.

A 25-9 third quarter, followed by a 19-10 fourth tends to turn a contest around, Laurie Koehn with a game-high 22 points for the Thunder.

Kaye Tucker had 15 points and Darcee Garbin 14 for the Waves who continue to roll with a longer-term picture in mind.

36ers v Breakers (M)

YOU have to love Adelaide for a half and that's what it gave against New Zealand before succumbing 66-84.

If you do the same things, expect the same result. So when in the first half you run a few pick-and-rolls for Tom Daly with Pero Vasiljevic, and get six points out of it ... well, of course, we don't want to see that in the second half.

That's why a 38-38 interval scoreline blows out to 50-38 in no time at all. How about Daryl Corletto making the baseline inbounds pass, ambling into court and to the corner, taking a return pass and swishing an uncontested three?

Then another basket and another triple for eight straight DC points. You have to Marvel!

Anthony Petrie's free throws at 4:03 were Adelaide first points of the second half and his basket at 2:25 its first field goal of the third quarter.

Toss in a couple of Leon Henry threes and NZ starts with an 18-2 run for 56-40 lead and this one is over, despite Petrie's 19 points and valiant efforts. Hey, valiant efforts is all Sixers' ownership is interested in.


BEEF of the WEEK

YEAH, I'm on the fine band-wagon yet again, just wondering aloud if Tigers coach Chris Anstey paid his $1,000 fine to the NBL this week before being allowed to coach against Sydney?

(Not that I believe you should be fined for telling the truth because if that was the case, a lot of whistle-blowers and reporters-with-integrity {there's three words you don't see locked together with hyphens very often} would be bankrupt.)

But I understand official NBL people have to keep their mouths closed on anything which could bring the game/sport/league into disrepute, unlike the referees, who can call a game so badly they bring the game/sport/league into disrepute in a whole other way. And they can do it on national TV!

But I digress.

It never ceases to amaze me how regularly fines are being distributed lately.

Chuck, you have to save up for years for a holiday to Hawaii - not promise Mrs H a trip, then start throwing fines around.
 

Biggest Winners/Losers

NEW Zealand was the NBL's biggest winner this round after staving off a desperate Wollongong at home, then going on the road to (ultimately) comfortably account for Adelaide, shoring up its claims on the regular season championship.

The round's big loser was Melbourne, despite beating Sydney in Sydney. As predicted, they won but only by three when the Tigers needed a six-point win to claim the season-series. Although they tied it at 2-2, they finish behind the Kings in any win-loss record tie because of the points spread. So while Melbourne won, it also lost.

TOWNSVILLE was the WNBL's big winner, despite losing to Bendigo. Beating the Boomers at the Veneto Club has virtually put Bulleen out of the playoff picture and given the Fire a chance to put some distance between the four and the rest.

Of course, that means Bulleen again is this week's biggest loser, for obvious reasons.


PS

ADELAIDE 36ers icon Brett Maher, who before the NBL season tipped-off said the 2012-13 line-up was the best Adelaide team since the 1998-99 champion, has amended that again to Sturt's 1995 State League men's Grand Final team.