The New Zealand Breakers won through to the franchise's first NBL finals appearance with a feisty 99-83 series-deciding victory over defending champions Perth in Auckland on Wednesday night.
The Wildcats managed to restrict Breakers danger man Kirk Penney to just 18 points, but Gary Wilkinson lifted to fill the scoring void, the US big man nailing 20 points on 5-of-8 shooting to help New Zealand clinch the series 2-1.
Although Penney could not repeat his 38-point haul from game two, his 5-of-8 shooting from long range was just as critical.
CJ Bruton (17 points) and Thomas Abercrombie (10) also chipped in with handy hauls as the Wildcats struggled from long range, hitting just 4-of-21 shots from beyond the arc.
Matthew Knight (17 points) battled manfully for Perth and Jesse Wagstaff and Stephen Weigh each chipped in with 12 points, but Kevin Lisch was kept to just nine points in what could be his final game for the club.
Tensions threatened to boil over early in the final quarter when Wildcats import Andre Brown lost his cool in a scuffle and struck Breakers big man Mika Vukona in the face with an open hand.
Vukona was only trying to calm down Brown at the time and the referees had no hesitation in ejecting the Wildcats import from the game.
The Breakers led by seven points at the time and never looked troubled from that point onwards, cruising to victory to set up a grand final showdown against the winner of Sunday's clash between Townsville and Cairns.
New Zealand will be hot favourites to take out the title given it has home court advantage for games one and three (if required) after finishing the regular season in top spot with a 22-6 record.
Perth romped to the title last season but its chances of going back-to-back nosedived in January when star forward Shawn Redhage suffered a serious hip injury.
Although the Wildcats battled on to cover the loss, their lack of firepower was clearly evident against the Breakers, who never looked troubled after surging to the lead early in the second quarter.
The Wildcats made a barnstorming start to the match, opening up a 21-13 lead early on before Wilkinson hit his stride.
Penney, under some close attention from Wildcats guard Damian Martin, hit a number of clutch threes and also dished off some handy assists as the Breakers opened up a 52-43 advantage by half-time.
But it was Wilkinson who dealt out the main damage, pumping up the crowd every time he nailed a shot as the Cats' defence struggled to control the big man.
The margin stretched to 11 points at the final change and the Breakers ensured there would be no fightback with a dominant last-term blitz in front of their adoring, sell-out home crowd.
-AAP
First posted April 13, 2011 19:29:00
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