AUS - Chris Anstey stands tall - decider beckons

MELBOURNE (NBL) - An ingenious coaching performance by Al Westover and an inspired first half from Chris Anstey have seen the Melbourne Tigers dominate the South Dragons, 108-95, in game four of the NBL Grand Final series, setting up a deciding fifth game on Friday night at Hisense Arena.

Anstey's resume includes two Olympics, a FIBA World Championship, a gold medal in FIBA U23 competition, a ULEB Cup MVP, two FIBA Europe League All Star berths, two NBL MVPs and three years in the NBA.

No one at the Cage to see his performance in game four would doubt any of it. By half time Anstey had 23 points and 9 rebounds as the Tigers surged to a 57-44 lead behind a ferocious capacity crowd. The 7'1 superstar finished with 31 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.

Anstey would hit the first field goal of the second half, and then watch as fellow internationals Dave Barlow (18 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) and Ebi Ere (20 points, 6 rebounds, 6 turnovers) went to work to give the Tigers a commanding 89-69 three quarter time advantage.

Barlow hit three straight shots to extend the lead, while a play by Ere with 5:05 remaining in the third quarter summed up the night.

The Nigerian international shook two defenders and exploded for a dunk, but the ball rimmed out and fell into Barlow's hands. Ere sprinted to the corner where Barlow fed him the ball, and he calmly nailed the three point shot to send the crowd into raptures and force Dragons coach Brian Goorjian to call time out, his team 21 points in arrears.

This game was won and lost on the boards, however, with the Tigers out-rebounding South by a massive 60-33 margin. Led by Canadian international Dave Thomas (9 rebounds, 4 offensive), veteran sub Stephen Hoare and youngster Tommy Greer, Melbourne pulled in 22 offensive rebounds to 6, allowing the Tigers 19 more field goal attempts than their opponents.

Much credit must also go to Tigers coach Westover. After setting a smoke screen with his public criticism of the league and the match officials from game three, Westover never gave the Dragons physical defence a chance to be effective. The two-time championship coach adjusted his team's offence to limit the number of cutters, instead using off the ball players to spread the floor and exchange on two man screens on the perimeter.

While this was a departure from Melbourne's usual shuffle offence, this strategy has been effective against Goorjian coached teams before, and enabled Anstey to find room in the post, and Barlow and Ere driving lanes and wide open jumpers when the defence collapsed on the big Tigers centre. It also kept his players fresh, free from the the constant checking of the relentless Dragons.

Point guard Nathan Crosswell (14 points, 5 assists, 0 turnovers) also played a key role, continually exploring the defence in transition to prevent the Dragons from exclusively focusing on the Tigers key men, and setting up an important 29-21 quarter time lead.

For the South Dragons, only import Tremmell Darden (15 points) produced a four quarter display, while former Atlanta Hawk Donta Smith showed only flashes of his talents once the game was decided, as did Olympians Mark Worthington and Joe Ingles. The Dragons will be looking to quickly write this game off and focus on what should be an intense game five in front of more than 10,000 fans.

Coach Goorjian is confident of some home cooking come Friday: "All that's happened is that everybody's held serve."

"(The Grand Final) has gone from home to home to home to home," he added. "We took a piece of them in game three, they did what they're supposed to do in game four and now the ball's in our court in game five."

Tigers coach Westover said: "We played tonight with a lot of confidence, a lot of commitment and determination."

"And now we are in a position to win a Championship," he added. "When our backs have been against the wall we have been able to step up and hopefully that will be the situation on Friday night."

At the start of this grand final series, this writer tipped the Dragons to win in five games, and the odds are still slightly in their favour with game five on their home court.

Paul Kennedy
FIBA Correspondent in Australia