Adelaide by 10.

The match up of Cat vs. Ballinger is one I'm very much looking forward to see. Given Cat is somewhat past his prime, I'd give Balls that contest. Will be interesting though.

Similarly, Crosswhite vs. Schenscher will be one to watch, again giving Schen the edge, especially after his confidence building performance against the Gong.

Depends which Darnell turns up - he seems to either be on fire or a complete non-factor these days (as much as I love the guy).

I'd like to see Maher back up his stunning, vintage performance from Wed night as well, provided he's healthy. (We share the same doctor, so I'll pump him for info!).

I'd like to see Winitana and Hill continue to improve, and Davidson regain confidence on his road back from injury.

Also, time is running out in the season for Jacob to find his niche' - love to see him come good.

Jacob doesnt need to find anything Loco, playing solid ball

Oh I know, I just think he has another level in him, that's all. Tough with the rotation he's in though.

Hard to go past Adelaide, provided the boys have remained focused and aren't feeling too satisfied with Wednesday's win.

Loco, you hit it on the head with 'continue to improve' - that's the key, and it applies to the team as a whole as well as individual team members.

36ers by 10
Crowd 4987

The playing group keep saying 'we are 2-0 with one import this season..'

I am looking forward to it and I am expecting Hill, Maher and Coops to continue playing like angry betrayed men !

Love watching Brad Hill's improvement, and good point Loco about Jacob finding his 'niche'... also thought Aaron was steadier also last wed, his first quarter was deadly, looking forward to Bruecy tearing it up.

Pity whoever has to guard Adam...

Jacob is a great player however this season has played nig minutes and not done alot to prove himself in those minutes. I love the guy but is really struggling at the offensive end. I feel Hoban should maybe be thrown a few of his minutes as the young boy is a monster. They would lose nothing iof Hoban played 5-10 minutes out there with Balls and Schens. I hope Jacob picks it up though coz he is quality.

Good point re: Bruce. I was cringing everytime he went near the rock in the clutch until I listened in on the Wildcats double OT game - he came up massive.

Wednesday night was a huge improvement re: turnovers for the team as a whole. Let's keep it that way! Looks like the offence is starting to gel.

Ironically Schutzenfest is on this weekend. I have organised a Lederhosen fur dem gross Luke.

Whether the refs continue to miss the constant slapping, holding and pushing will be noted.

Boti, please use the Lederhosen reference in the paper this week!

Jack, I think it would be hilarious if there were around 6 blokes dressed in Lederhosen down the end of the court where the dancers sit. Every time the refs overlook the mauling on Schenscher, the blokes could perform the German slapping dance. Perhaps Skip could find some appropriate music to play to complement the dancing. Now that would be a sight to behold.

EC,
Brilliant idea!
Hope you can find some music Skip.

beware the wounded taipan,36ers had better bring a lot of effort to the game, otherwise have a snake bite kit handy!!

What time is the game anyone?

7.00pm

Tip-off is 7pm.

+1 vote for Lederhosen hilarity.

Who was the last team to sweep the Doomsday Double?

If your after Leaderhosen give Hans from Nova radio a call,he'd be enought to scare any oppostion/ref!!

I would like to see Coops getting just a few more minutes particularly when Schenscher and Balls are on as they both score more freely when he is in. Especially if Luke is getting mugged. Wed night was a good example when Luke was on a roll while Coops drew a bit of his attention. Coops is capable of a few more good minutes which could be very productive. He is no slouch in defense either and our offensive rebound stats improve greatly when he is in. Comments?

A win for the 6ers , by atleast 15 if not more . A good team for us to play under the circumstances. The crowd may be down (Ill be there though)but even without second import we should hammer these guys.C'mon .

Happy to see Cooper get a bit more court time in rotation with the other bigs. We generally get good value from him especially in defence. I love it when he makes opposition players change thier shot after commiting to the shot. He also uses his fouls well. It si good to see him at least attempt to shot when he has the ball in offence. Ha has to keep making the defence come to him and taking the pressure of others.

Also with Perth's loss lastnight to Cairns, they are 12-11. If we win tonight comfortably to go 12-11 and make up the current 0.2% difference in percentage to Perth, we will go into 4th spot, jumping over the crocs along the way!!!!!!

C'mon Sixers!

Sixers by 13
Crowd 5329

We would have them on percentage though if we win by a certain amount(??) I would think....??

We would have them on percentage for now. BUT come season's end if teams are tied on win-loss than it goes on direct head to head game results.

big win, cat has degraded into a cheap shot failer.

did anyone notice at the end of the game him throwing the bottle at the refs accross the court,

wonder what will come from that atleast it was pointed out to the refs by and official

Missed the game tonight, what was the score and how did the boys go?

Looks like it was a great win based on boxsores, tight up until late in the 3rd then it looks like Davidson hit 3 threes in a row then got 2 assists (both with Paora scoring) on the next 2 plays to turn a 6 point lead into 19 points at the end of the 3rd.

Big game from Schensch with 24 and 15 in just 29 minutes, Bruce also big with 12, 6, 8 and 4 steals. Great to see only 1 player (Bruce) needing to play more than 30 minutes and the entire squad getting a run, looking forward to reading reports from those at the game.

My initial thoughts are, 7 players in double figures.
All of these had injury and fitness problems, early in the season. Hodge came in and lead the scoring.
Now everyone is fit , healthy , lifted , improved.

For those of you that didn't go to the game Matt Smith kind of started a fight with Schenscher and Cat comes along and pulls Schenschers pony tail which enraged Schenscher. Stupid move by Cat as this fired up the crowd!

It was a good game Cairns put up some resistance for the first half but we blew them away in the second half.

All the bench got a run. One funny note is Kersten gets the ball as cairns scored, he dribbles up to the 3point line and gets the ball stolen by williams who gets the layup. So then someone pass's in to Kersten again and the same thing happens williams steals the ball and lays it up.

dont think kersten will see minutes like that again anytime soon :P


on and just reiterating cat is a DIRTY nugget

Luke was awesome and clear cut all star five centre this year. Will take a lot to knock him of for POTW! Great fun to watch, if you didnt go, missed a great display of unselfish basketball. The players looked like they were having so much fun out there too, which is contagious and cant wait to see how we go on the road next weekend!

Scott wasn't happy with that kersten effort.

Crowd 5003 I think they said. Perhaps a second import could be worth a thousand.
Guess wed and sat 11,300 not too bad.

Surely Schensh is POTW!

Leave Kersten alone it was his first time playing and he choked a little bit what did you expect.
It didn't effect the outcome to much did it??
Like to see you do any better!!

Julius who?

The team came ready to go tonight.

Schenscher was just HUGE! Finished with 24 & 16 in just 29 minutes. Played excellent help D and changed a number of shots. IMO is an underrated passer out of double teams.

Davidson went crazy in a spell that lifted the whole team, hit 3 3's and hit Paora with a sweet alley (alley layup) to end the quarter.

Winitana was excellent, this guy on defence never hits a screen and just stops he works his arse of and gets through it to keep chasing his man.

Bruce was excellent, the last month he has taken giant steps at the PG spot. He is working an excellent 2-man game with Schensch and is starting to knock down his shots. Also for the most part is taking care of the ball.

Hill, IMO each game he is getting better and better, his D is improving out of sight along with his decision making.

Balls and Maher were both quiet by their standards but were servicable and provided decent games.

Jacob seems to be enjoying Julius being gone, IMO has played 2 of his best games today and on Wednesday. Seemed to have a bit of lower back/hip soreness which limited his minutes, but in the end it didn't really matter. IMO from what I have heard Grizz is a true team player and hopefully Jake and Grizz can form an excellent partnership at the 3 spot.

Hoban got some burn and certainly was servicable.

Eze really brings the ball up well and looks like he could make a good back up PG later.

Kersten unfortunately took a severe confidence hit tonight.

Shotclock, agree that there is no need to get on Kersten's back and a great learning experience. Time on court is excellent, however, would have like to have seen him chase the player and at least apply some pressure when it was stolen from him.

I don't know Skip, Crosswhite will be in the running again :)

Cairns got a fast 10-0 start, but we worked back into it through Schenscher and Holmes. It was great to see Jacob finally have a decent offensive game at home. Schenscher was a monster, 24 and 16 through 2.5 quarters was fantastic. Brad Davidson found his jumpshot for the first time this season, and Aaron Bruce had another solid game with 12 points, 8 assists, 5 boards, and 4 steals.

Ninnis is managing Maher's minutes beautifully at the moment, and Maher is playing great ball as a result. Ballinger didn't have much of an impact due to first half foul trouble, Hill also with 4 first half fouls (2 of which were BS). Winitana played about 20 minutes of excellent ball, my only concern with him is he isn't hitting the open jumper. Cooper blocked a few shots (and changed a few more), and Hoban looked great at the end of the game.

Our intensity, unselfishness on offense, and rotation on defense was great. The effort level was excellent, with the exception of Ryan Kersten. I don't know what has happened to him since last season (where he was quite servicable in NZ), but his effort tonight was a disgrace. Not so much the getting his pocket picked, but more the standing there and watching Williams lay the ball up. That pissed me off, I bet it pissed Ninnis off too.

For Cairns, Grabau was ok, Brebner not a total joke, but everyone else was terrible. I thought that if we could get 12-14 points up in the third that they would spit the dummy, which is what happened (Crosswhite's FT attempt an example of this). I know they have been through a lot of adversity this season, but I don't have a lot of sympathy for the Cairns basketball club (not compared to Sydney of Brisbane). They have been in the league since 1999 and have never really threatened to win anything. They are the Fremantle Dockers of the NBL.

The umpiring was an improvement on Wednesday, but not by much.

A great team win for us, and let's hope Grizzard can add something positive.

Crosswhite underarm freethrow - what a wanker. Show some respect for your teammates, who were at least trying (before that joke of an attempt).

Great game by the Sixers, Schench is becoming unstoppable in this league, great efforts from the bench particularly, the Brads, Coops and Winitana all getting good burn and controlling the game.

That said, Cairns were up against it, down two imports, and coming off a game last night. It looked like they were down on energy, and we luckily didn't fall into the trap of playing down to their level.

The umpires called some early fouls and opened up the game a bit. It was nice to see some free flowing bball for the first time in ages. Cat is great value - always entertaining when he comes to town!

That was a fantastic game for a blowout!!!

Fight: Hilarious! Everyone was booing, I was laughing lol. Matt Smith is a dickhead but Cat was just being a clown.
By the way, why did no one boo Matt Smith all game like Cat??? He started it FGS!

Schenscher: POTW!!! (averaged 24.5 and 14.5) Another huge game. Anyone who has 17 & 11 in one half of basketball is an absolute monster.
He destroyed Crosswhite and Smith despite their dirtiness... dirty dirty people they are.

Balls: In the words of Rupert - "He played crap". No he didn't. But he was quiet. Was understandably frustrated in the first half but came back with some nice O boards and second-chance points later.

Holmes: Perfect! That's what he needs to do. Was great on offence with 16pts and rebounded nicely despite only having five (think Luke stole a few). D was very good too. I think he came off a bit sore though - he was in and out of the rooms a few times and sat on a mat instead of the bench.

Hodge: Bad.

Maher: Took a while to get into things but hit a few nice threes (one from the Apollo room) and some other clutch shots as usual.

Bruce: Fantastic. His shot choice left a bit to be desired early but he got to the rim well, passed even better and even got some boards! Plus his D was as good as I've ever seen from him.

Coop: Forced to shoot on the buzzer about 3 times resulting in his 0/4FG's but rebounded well as always and came up with some embarrassing (for Matt Smith :) blocks. More minutes tonight at the expense of the twin gingers - good to see but won't happen in close games.

Winitana: Possibly his best regular season game this year. Great slashing, great rebounding, great passing, fantastic Defence! Could benefit from gambling a bit less for interceptions, he left a few guys open as a result and didn't have any steals to show for it (is that right? I'm sure he had one).

Hill: Another good one!... and he's still hitting his threes too. Great! He tried another alley-oop with Brucie... didn't work.

Davidson: He's back!!! Man it would be great to have him back at his best like this going into the playoffs! He hit four threes in a row! (and props to the rest of the team for recognizing the flames on his arms). His D was fantastic and somehow he managed 4 assists in his 17mins too - one was a great alley-oop pass to Winitana at the end of the third - absolutely set the crowd off!

Hoban!!!!!! We got to see 5MINS of him!!! That was probably the best part of the game - seeing the rooks. Hoban was the best of the three with two nice inside FG's and two boards. Looks ready.

Eazy: Could have been brought on earlier but still got in almost 3mins. Didnt do much but looked a hell of a lot more comfortable than Kersten...

Kersten: Was noticeably disappointed at not being invited into the half-time donut-eating contest and played terribly! You had to feel sorry for him after the second time Deron stole it for an uncontested layup. He tried the EXACT same move... and Deron stole it the EXACT same way. Deja Vu. Not ready.

Taips:
Great Coaching from the start.
Don't like Smith, or Brebner, or Crosswhite (WTF WAS THAT FREE-THROW??? not funny), or Vale, or Cook. But somehow I still like the Cat. Yes, I was booing him all game and calling him a wanker but I still like him. Darnell was great defensively and Deron Williams showed some signs. I have no idea how they beat Perth!

Refs: Better than usual. The new guy was terrible.

Little game booklets: WTF were they thinking putting Judas Hodge's profile in there tonight??? It just meant more scrunched up balls of paper for the cleaners to pick up later.

Bring in the Grizzz!

Skip, nice work with the music, although thunderstruck at the start should of been much much louder :)

and also great work with the na na na na na na ey ey ey goodbye song, although probably abit early for it, and none of the crowd got into it :(

overall great night, and great entertainment


GO SIXERS

Good work X,
Reffing was v. poor. Too many examples of soft calls against the Sixers, too much latitude to the tie pins.

e.g. Aaron brings the ball down and Grabber blocks him - no call. I jump out and call the block, suddenly Andrew Filmer reaches for and grabs his whistle for a call.

The whole melee was a debarcle. Signals for this, cancelled, recalled. Make up your minds boys.

He hit four threes in a row! (and props to the rest of the team for recognizing the flames on his arms).

Actually, a couple more dirty things fro tie pins:

* Pony tail pulling
* Holding and elbowing
* The guy who shot the 3 with seconds to go when everyone was shaking hands...no class

Did they count that final three? I thought it went ignored by the refs?

#220699, it was important to win the game by a large margin due to being able to get 4th position. Didn't want to dwindle the lead by bringing rookies on too early.

Talking about position on the ladder, does everyone know that it is still a remote possibility that we could finish the regular season on top of the ladder. All it takes is for us to win all 7 remaining games, the Dragons to lose all their remaining games, NZ to lose most of their remaining games and Tigers to lose half their remaining games. Now that's not too much to ask for is it?

Jack mate, we could push that German theme a bit more if we get a Hoban's Heroes group going.
Schultz-enfests, the Voonter Bar, possibilities are endless.

LOL,
the roll of Schultz has been taken by 3 men "I see nothing!"

DJM,
Unfortunately, the last 3 was counted. I thought it was particularly bad sportsmanship to have a shot when everyone is shaking hands and one of the tie pins bench had already thrown a water bottle on the court and they were all on the court.

Another incident was when Luke was pushed to the ground in Q4. He held his arm out to the Cat to help him up, but who left him on the floor and only gave him a sneer as his slithered by. C'mon man, that's a bit average don't you think?

BTW, I hope Boti enjoys his Villis pie pack

Jack:

"LOL,
the roll of Schultz has been taken by 3 men "I see nothing!""

Well picked up. : ) : )

Actually, I believe it's, "I see naaaaaaarssings."

Jack:

"Unfortunately, the last 3 was counted. I thought it was particularly bad sportsmanship to have a shot when everyone is shaking hands and one of the tie pins bench had already thrown a water bottle on the court and they were all on the court."

Yeh, I actually thought the bench may have been on court when he took that shot. Could be wrong. If they were, shouldn't that be blown, especially if they counted the points? It's not a biggy, but that's BS logging those points.

Hang on, it's the Pans & payback for that 0.7 second fiasco (fiasco). ; )

It is all determined by the clock. If there was time left, which I assume there was as the shot would not have been counted otherwise. I disagree with everyone here because the ending of the game with shaking hands and returning back to the bench should not have happened prematurely. The result was inevitable but play should still continue until the clock expires. No bad sportsmanship if there was still time.

I agree with EC. It is not bad sportsmanship to shoot a 3 regardless if others are shaking hands or not.

OK it's not bad sportsmanship, but can we agree it was an act of a tool? ; )

Yes, if people can't say it's unsportmanlike, let's just say a gentleman would never have taken that shot.

That does it for me.

Nah I would have taken the shot :P Whether you are up by 50 or down by 50 everyone loves to jack up a shot at the end just for fun.

Yeh, but you're a cheap-shot artist. : P

Thought that final shot was not very sportsmanlike, but he's a rookie and probably needs to boost his PPG any way he can. Forgiveable.

Highlight of a very entertaining game for me was the combination of Winitana and Davidson. Paora sets Brad up for a few makes and then Brad returns the favour. Great teamwork that broke open the game.

Pretty sure Winnie lifted to show the fans how inspired he was practicing with Jules.
He said that in a vid, or has that one been lifted too. : P