NOBODY beats the Brisbane Bullets nine times out of 10. Nobody.
US tennis great Vitas Gerulaitis once declared that “nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row” after ending Jimmy Connors’ 16-match winning streak against him.
The Bullets know how Gerulaitis felt after putting a dent in their own hoodoo with a 104-85 win over Illawarra at the Brisbane Convention Centre on Thursday night.
Since the Bullets re-entered the NBL in the 2016-17 season, the Hawks had won eight of the nine clashes between the sides.
Illawarra owned Brisbane when you added four pre-season wins to the tally. But the Bullets put a stop to the rot to claim their fifth win of the season and temporarily climb back into the NBL’s top four.
Bullets import Lamar Patterson oozed class with 24 points, five rebounds, six assists and two steals. He was head and shoulders above everyone on the court.
Jason Cadee (15 points, five assists) and Cam Gliddon (15 points) were the chief support acts for the Bullets who found their range at the offensive end and produced defensive stops at the right times.
Mika Vukona (11 points, eight rebounds), Reuben Te Rangi (11 points) and Stephen Holt (12 points) also did plenty of damage coming off the bench for Brisbane.
Brian Conklin and AJ Ogilvy added 16 points apiece to be the best for the Hawks who slumped to their fifth loss in six matches and a 3-7 record.
The Bullets were staring down the barrel of a fourth-straight loss which would have dumped them down to seventh on the ladder.
But they blew the Hawks off the court in third quarter, outscoring the visitors 24-13 to set-up a 79-66 buffer at the last change.
With Cadee leading the charge for Brisbane with eight points and two assists for the third term, Brisbane emerged from the halftime break with all guns blazing and they rediscovered their upbeat offensive tempo.
Brisbane led 55-53 at halftime after the Hawks fought their way back into the contest in a scrappy second quarter with Patterson (13 points, three assists) and Gliddon (12 points from four of five three-point attempts) leading the way for the Bullets.
Aided by a lopsided foul count of 13-7 at halftime — and 10-6 in the second quarter alone — Illawarra upped their defensive intensity after allowing Brisbane to shoot at a remarkable 68 per cent from the fields in the first term.
Brisbane got out to a 13-point cushion late in the first quarter before taking a 35-24 advantage into the first break with seven players getting on the scoreboard for the deadly accurate and freewheeling home side.
The Bullets went on a blistering 10-run early in the first quarter to stamp their authority on the match.
But under astute head coach Rob Beveridge, the Hawks have the ability to make significant in-game adjustments and they were able to shutdown Brisbane’s free-flowing offence while exploiting their size advantage with Conklin, Ogilvy the prime movers in the second quarter comeback.
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