Adelaide 36ers missed out on a big payday on Sunday, Mike Wells’ side going down to New Zealand Breakers in the inaugural Ignite Cup final at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, 111-107.
After missing the NBL finals, the Breakers took out a lucrative consolation prize with a gutsy win on the back of a stellar second half from star skipper Parker Jackson-Cartwright in a pulsating game.
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Bryce Cotton had a game-high 34 points and Nick Rakocevic finished with a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out in the last quarter, but it wasn’t enough to cash in ahead of their NBL finals assault having secured second spot on the ladder.
Petteri Koponen’s side finished just outside the finals spots in seventh at the end of the regular season, but his players can upgrade their post-season holiday plans after taking out the lucrative competition.
The Ignite Cup, the NBL’s new in-season tournament, offered a record $400,000 prize pool, with the winners of Sunday’s final sharing $300,000 and the losers taking home $100,000.
The Sixers took a one-point lead into the final term, but trailed by six with six minutes remaining.
Scores were level with three minutes left but Izaiah Brockington slammed home a monster dunk after securing a key steal, and Jackson-Cartwright drained a clutch three soon after as the Breakers held on for a memorable win.
HIGH OCTANE OPENING
In a highly entertaining opening, both sides nailed their first five shots from the floor as the Breakers edged to a 14-11 lead.
Isaac Humphries broke the perfect start with a miss just over three minutes in, but the quality of the basketball did not dip with 10 lead changes in a pulsating opening term.
Reuben Te Rangi led the charge with 10 points on 4-from-4 shooting, including two triples, as the Breakers shot at 73 per cent from the floor (11-from-15) in the first quarter to lead 28-25 at the first break.
Adelaide took the lead early in the second quarter when Cotton found Zylan Cheatham with a deft alley-oop pass that Cheatham gathered and ferociously stuffed down with two hands.
Carlin Davison returned the favour with a monstrous dunk over Cheatham and Humphries in the dying seconds of the second quarter, but Cheatham’s basket as time expired put his side up 54-47 at the main break.
BEAST MODE BRYCE
Cotton missed Adelaide’s final regular season game, a 12-point away loss to Perth Wildcats, with a back issue as the team rested him for an effectively irrelevant contest – but he didn’t miss a beat on his return.
The five-time NBL MVP had averaged 38 points against the Breakers across his past eight games, draining 42 points in their last meeting on Valentine’s Day, and he tormented New Zealand with a game-high 17 points in the first half.
Te Rangi was still his team’s leading scorer at the half, but he was still stuck on 10 points, with Jackson-Cartwright restricted to just six points in the first half as the Breakers’ offence sputtered, with their shooting percentage dropping to 57 to trail by five points at half-time.
PJC PICKS UP
Jackson-Cartwright sparked his side with 12 points in the third quarter as the Breakers surged back to take the lead three minutes into the third quarter.
After threatening to take the contest out of New Zealand’s reach in the first half, Cotton moved his tally to 26 points at three-quarter time, but the Breakers sliced the deficit to one point to set up a grandstand finish.
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