Abercrombie's Breakers legacy grows with buzzer-beater

The final week at the NBL Cup has got underway with the finish of the season so far as inspirational New Zealand Breakers captain Tom Abercrombie added to his legacy with the game-winning triple on the buzzer against the Cairns Taipans to win 76-73.

The game might have not reached any great heights most of the way, but it ended with the finish of the NBL season so far in a dramatic and frantic final two minutes between the Breakers and Taipans at John Cain Arena on Wednesday.

The Breakers had opened up a 19-point lead early in the third quarter and that was despite really only using six players with Rob Loe back home, Lamar Patterson out injured and Corey Webster joining them as a late out with a sore knee.

That didn’t deny them, though, and they were terrific to open up that lead after dominating the first half. But it showed even greater character to then withstand the fightback from the Taipans and to win the game on the buzzer.

The Taipans were getting closer and closer, and broke level with 40 seconds remaining on a tough floater in the paint from Scott Machado. 

Rasmus Bach then put New Zealand back in front with a three ball that was answered in kind by Mirko Djeric who drilled his from metres beyond the arc on the Menulog logo.

The Breakers had one last shot to avoid overtime but the Taipans denied Tai Webster a good look on his drive. However, Abercrombie grabbed the offensive rebound, got out beyond the three-point line and span and rose to release the shot.

It was all net and the Breakers won the game in the most remarkable of fashions as Abercrombie added to a legacy that already includes four championships, a Grand Final MVP and he's likely to end his career leading most, if not all, categories at New Zealand.

It's a moment that Abercrombie will always remember.

"It was obviously an awesome feeling and any time you can hit a game winner you remember it," Abercrombie said.

"It wasn’t exactly how we drew up that last play but I just had to make up for my mistake on that last play to try and pop it in. I was lucky that it kind of floated toward me and I was able to catch it in rhythm and let it fly. 

"I was a little bit worried I didn’t get it off in time but I got swamped pretty quick and didn’t have a chance to look up and check. But my teammates were obviously pretty confidence and it was cool."

Not only did Abercrombie hit the winner, but he had his best game of the season too with 20 points and three rebounds on 7/12 shooting.

Tai Webster battled foul trouble and shooting woes for 6/21, but still had 16 points, five rebounds and four assists with Colton Iverson adding 15 points and 11 rebounds, Finn Delany nine points and Rasmus Bach nine.

The Taipans will be devastated to lose in that fashion but should never have got in a 19-point hole to start with.

Cam Oliver top-scored with 19 points and seven rebounds with Scott Machado 14 points, five boards and four assists, and NBL Next Star Mojave King 12 points, five rebounds and two steals.

Taipans coach Mike Kelly didn’t like the way his team started in reaction to the zone defence of the Breakers but saw some marked improvement once they came to terms with it.

"The first thing I think was that we came out against a zone and we played like we hadn’t seen a zone before so it was a good tactic to slow us down, and we had a lot of indecision," Kelly said.

"Instead of attacking we went into hatch the ball mode and we didn’t move the ball well early. We settled for some tough shots and definitely it took us a while to just find our bearings offensively. That was not a good way to start the game.

"Then defensively especially in that second half the guys got tough and they made the Breakers try to score through their chest more often and we got some stops."

Cairns did score the game's first five points through Cam Oliver and Scott Machado, but the Breakers took control from there with the game's next 13 points to be up 13-5. 

New Zealand then closed the opening term with the last seven points to lead 24-11 after one on the back of 12 trips to the foul line. The Snakes didn’t get there once and shot just 5/18 from the floor and 1/7 from deep.

The Taipans did open the second quarter better with the opening six points but they couldn’t keep it going with the Breakers responding with a 9-4 run to open up a double-figure lead.

Cairns tried to fire back firstly with five straight Oliver points and then five from Jordan Ngatai, but New Zealand was rolling with Tom Abercrombie hitting another three and Tai Webster ending the half with the last four points.

The Breakers went 16/32 in the first half shooting opposed to 11/35 from Cairns who also went just 2/13 from deep and Mirko Djeric, Kouat Noi and Nate Jawai were all scoreless.

New Zealand opened up a game high 19-point lead early in the second half after Tom Abercrombie knocked down a triple. But it was Next Star Mojave King who sparked the Taipans to work back into the contest and the Breakers weren’t helped with a fourth foul to Tai Webster.

King was aggressive and impressive for Cairns with nine points in the third quarter while Mirko Djeric and Nate Jawai scored their first points of the game to make it an eight-point game by three quarter-time.

Cairns was making a charge, though, and New Zealand was tiring with only six players really used. Daniel Trist did play five minutes as the seventh player to hit the floor.

Machado and Djeric drained huge triples to make it a one-point game with over a minute left. Colton Iverson put New Zealand back up two before Machado tied the scores to set the stage for the remarkable finish.

After Rasmus Bach and Djeric traded threes, it looked to be going to overtime until the offensive rebound and stunning buzzer-beater from Abercrombie.

Both teams will now finish their NBL Cup campaigns on Friday with the Breakers first up against the Perth Wildcats and then the Taipans face the debut Ryan Broekhoff and the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 9
NBL CUP WEEK 4

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 76 (Abercrombie 20, T Webster 16, Iverson 15) 

CAIRNS TAIPANS 73 (Oliver 19, Machado 14, King 12)

POINTS AWARDED – New Zealand Breakers 5, Cairns Taipans 2

BOX SCORE