21 Apr 2012

Wilkinson rues deflected winner

2:04 pm on 21 April 2012

The New Zealand Breakers ended up losing by one point in Perth, in bizarre style, despite looking by far the better team for most of last night's second Australian basketball league grand final game.

The Wildcats hit the lead with a minute remaining after Breakers forward Gary Wilkinson accidentally tipped the ball into his own basket.

Then former Breakers forward Shawn Redhage pulled off a last-second rejection to send the series to a decider on Tuesday night in Auckland.

The 87-86 loss is probably the result a lot of Breakers fans wanted with another chance to cheer their team home at Vector Arena now - but Wilkinson is still shaking his head.

However the centre says if that's what it takes for Perth to win, the Breakers will just win it in Auckland now, and cut down the nets on their home court again.