Breadmore hot for Ambassadors in tight finish

Ambassadors claimed their biggest scalp of the season and put in arguably one of their best performances at A-grade level, coming from behind to inflict Barking Owls their first defeat of 2018-19 on Tuesday night.

The Owls did it tough last week in their win over Crabs but maintained a perfect record after seven rounds of the Albany Basketball Association men’s A-grade competition.

Ambassadors, however, dug deep late in the contest and consecutive three-pointers from the hot hand of Tim Breadmore helped them get across the line by two points, stunning the Owls in the process.

Owls were in control early on the back of leading MVP candidate Hamish McMorran, trailed by five points at half-time and then regained control to lead for large parts of the season half.

What mattered were the final few minutes, however, and the little-known Breadmore announced himself, emerging the match winner with two clutch finishes from deep.

Breadmore spent most of the night opposed to Owls big man Shaun Rost and he dropped a classy triple over the top of his opponent under pressure to get Ambassadors within a point.

Rost missed a freebie at the other end, going to the line, where he was unsuccessful in both free throws, and with the game inside three minutes, again it was Breadmore who stepped up.

He sank another deep bucket to hand Ambassadors the lead and moments later, experienced figure Caleb Carmen broke clear for a fast break two to all but end the contest.

Veteran Justin Benson hit two free throws to again make it two points, but Ambassadors controlled possession in the final 30 seconds to hang on for a 62-60 win.

Breadmore, in his second game for Ambassadors this season, was simply superb as he won the battle with Rost and hit three long-range buckets in his match-winning 18-point haul. Carmen (12 points) and Ryan Barber (10) also impressed, while Ambassadors got 15 points off the bench from Astor Beniasan and Peter Coetzee.

McMorran, who scored the first 13 points for his side, hammered down a couple of big jams and nailed three first-half triples as he scored 22 points for the night, and Benson hit 12 as their six-game winning streak came to an end.

Earlier, a compact defensive performance from Tigers helped them to a much-needed win over the Raiders under-18 development squad.

Tigers conceded only 14 points in the final 25 minutes as they coasted to a 46-32 win with talls Jacob Hobbs (15), Corey Hill (9) and Tim Button (8) capitalising on Raiders developing bigs.

Taj Williams nailed three baskets from outside the arc as his 17 points helped Kinjarling Thunder prevail over The Farm Athletics in the other round 8 match after Crabs won on forfeit over Albany Spartans.