The NZ Breakers were a heartbeat away from winning the ANBL Championship last night; the heartbeat of Taipans hero Ron Dorsey.
They had taken the match into overtime with a three-point shot from CJ Bruton. In the first period of overtime, two clutch three-pointers by Kevin Braswell had given them a three-point lead with only four seconds remaining. They celebrated, but their celebrations were premature.
As the clock ticked down, Dorsey shot from far beyond the three-point arc, after pushing off Bruton. Dorsey was off balance, and his shot was the Hail Mary to end all Hail Marys. But Dorsey's shot hit the bottom of the net, the match went into a second period of overtime, and the Taipans ground out a gutsy four-point victory.
It was an ugly match, marked with big defence from both times, and well below par shooting. The Taipans closed Kirk Penney down, but they will have to try and do that again in Auckland on Friday night.
The Breakers should have closed the match down last night, but the Taipans took their chances when it counted. We're still picking the Breakers to close out the finals series on Friday at home, but they'll be rueing Dorsey's buzzer-beating heroics last night.
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