There's no more tomorrow for the New Zealand Breakers and Perth Wildcats as they collide in the deciding game of their final showdown in the Australian National Basketball League on Tuesday.
The Wildcats forced a winner-take-all game after edging the Breakers 87-86 last Friday. Led by Matthew Knight, Perth made a decisive run in the fourth quarter as the club erased a seven-point deficit.
Perth took the lead for good when Gary Wilkinson accidentally tipped the ball into his own goal after swatting it from Knight while going for a rebound with 53 seconds left.
New Zealand had a chance to seal the win but Shawn Redhage blocked CJ Bruton's attempt as time expired.
Kevin Lisch and Jesse Wagstaff led the Wildcats with 15 points each. Knight finished with 13 points while Redhage chipped in 12.
The loss spoiled the 28-point explosion of Wilkinson. Bruton added 20 points for the Breakers.
Wilkinson is eager to redeem himself after their bizarre defeat in Game 2.
"I've never ever seen that happen to win a basketball game," Wilkinson told Fairfax NZ News.
"If it took a deflection going in the basket for them to win then so be it. We'll go back to Auckland and win it there."
Perth, meanwhile, is out to prove that its win was no fluke.
"We were lucky. There's absolutely no doubt the basketball gods were on our side and we won with luck," Perth head coach Rob Beveridge told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"But you make your own luck as well. What this does is give us another crack. Maybe it's fate."
