Melbourne Tigers Blitz Field

The Melbourne Tigers have ushered in the post-Gaze era in style with a resounding 66-38 win over pre-season title favourites Brisbane in the Grand Final of the 2005 Philips Championship National Basketball League (NBL) Blitz in Cairns on Saturday afternoon.

Tigers big man Chris Anstey was dominant with a 16-point, 13-rebound performance that saw him named as the winner of the Ray Borner Medal as the tournament Most Valuable Player.

Underlining the promise of the new-look Tigers team, young gun Daryl Corletto added 15 points and three assists while David Stiff had 12 points and five rebounds.

The best of the injury-struck Bullets line-up was veteran guard Derek Rucker with 13 points.

“I think we sent a bit of message to the rest of the league,” Anstey said after accepting his award.

“The pleasing thing from our point of view is that the effort was there, and we can play a whole lot better, but the real thing starts this week”.

The former Chicago Bull also paid tribute to the talent coming through in the Philips Championship.

“Brad Hill from Adelaide really impressed me, and that kid Callum Baynes from Brisbane, who I’d never heard of, played really well”, he said.

“When you add in some of these great Americans, you know you just won’t get an easy game in this league”.

Bullets coach Joey Wright was happy with how his youger players performed for the injury-riddled Bullets.

“I was very excited with the way our young guys played,” said Wright.

“Callum Baynes, Adam Gibson and Brad Williamson - these guys are the future of our ball club and it was promising to see how they performed.”

It was the first game for ex-Tiger legend Lanard Copeland against the club he served magnificently for 14 glorious years. Mark Bradtke was unavailable due to injury and will have to wait until September 18 to face his old club for the first time.

Without injured starters Bradtke and Bobby Brannen in the lineup, the Bullets came out with a massive size disadvantage and the Tigers used that to full effect early with Anstey and David Stiff crashing the boards. Thanks to some Darryl McDonald magic, Melbourne got out to a 15-8 lead as Brisbane coach Wright called time.

The Tigers continued to pour it on as Anstey established himself as an impassable obstacle defensively in the low post and, with Stiff getting the job done at the offensive end of the floor, Melbourne jumped to a 23-11 lead late in the half.

Anstey then showed some serious touch from the outside, swishing two three pointers as the Tigers skipped away. Despite some good work from Brisbane development player Baynes, Melbourne were in total control at the main break, up an imposing 34-17.

The Brisbane youngsters upped the defensive tempo to start the second half, and a Derek Rucker three cut the margin to 14 before in a scary moment, Bullets forward Brad Williamson crashed to the floor and split his head open. Williamson lay on the floor for several minutes, but eventually got up and was fine after going to the dressing room to have the wound attended to.

After a delay while the blood on the floor was cleaned up, both teams got back into it and, with Brisbane threatening to make a comeback, Tigers coach Al Westover wasted little time getting his prime mover Anstey back in the ballgame.

The seven-footer immediately had an impact, with a rebound, a layup, and an assist to Stephen Hoare for the easy dunk as the lead ballooned to 20 with just on five minutes remaining.

Despite the best efforts of Bullets captain Rucker, the Tigers were never seriously threatened the rest of the way, and they cruised to the easy win in a result which gives this new version of the Tigers great confidence heading into the 2005/06 Philips Championship season.

Earlier in the night, Townsville Crocodiles guard John Rillie confirmed his status as one of the league's pre-eminent marksmen by taking out the three-point competition.

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