|
RELATED Home Results Ladder Forum Leaders Teams Players Poll Links Photos Venues Contact Schedule Highlights |
Posted: Sat Nov 7, 1998 at 4:42 PM ET C.J Bruton has further established himself as the NBL's Mr Clutch with 21 points through the fourth quarter and overtime as the Hawks came back from 21 down with eight minutes remaining to steal one from the Titans. Bruton had started the game ice cold from the feild. 2 points at halftime (both from the line) and no feild goals had the Hawks slipping out of the contest. They couldn't stop Tony Ronaldson in the first half, he came up 21 and the Titans lead by 16 at the main break. Clayton Ritter, Matt Campbell and Glen Saville were getting things done for Wollongong but with no support from Bruton they looked to be in a great deal of trouble. The third quarter was when things really started to get bad for the Hawks. Despite cutting the margin to 12 with some early points from Glen Saville and Matt Campbell, they failed to keep it going. Tony Ronaldson scored 6 in the quarter but it was Dmac who caused the most problems for the Hawks with his penetration and great defence on Bruton. At three quarter time the Hawks looked all but gone, trailing the home side 56-75 and with no real signs of life. But the fourth quarter changed all that. Glen Saville ran off 8 early points, Matt Campbell scored 5 during that period and apart from a few inside buckets the Titans looked shaky offensively. C.J Bruton then decided it was time to get in to the act hitting his first trey of the match. But when Tony Ronaldson answered with a trey of his own it was a 16 point game. But the Hawks plugged away, Clayton Ritter produced an amazing 360 slam, Eric Cooks got 2 and then Bruton scored 5 straight. The Hawks trailed 87-93 after those Bruton points, but they still looked a long shots with less than two minutes to play. But nobody told the hawks, Matt Campbell hit the bomb to make it 40 seconds left. Then Wollongong got the steal and C.J Bruton again weaved his magic. He looked for an opening but was cut off by Dmac, but with 13 ticks to go he spun around and put up an impossible fade away three... it dropped. The Hawks then had to survive one last attempt from the Titans. But Ben Pepper missed and the game went into Overtime. In Overtime it was all C.J, he scored 10 points on 10-10 free throws. The Titans couldn't buy a bucket in O-T and the Hawks ran away with it, winning 111-100. In the last 17 minutes of play the Hawks outscored Victoria 55-25 in an amazing performace, C.J Bruton scored 21 of them as the new NBL Mr Clutch.
Video: CJ Bruton looks for an opening but is forced to take an extra turn around three but he nails it to send the game into Overtime. |
