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                              NBL Basketball  Australia - preseason
                            Melbourne Tigers vs Canberra Cannons 
                 Date: 19/8/02   Time: 19:40   Site: Devonport - TAS   
                                              Attendance:




























 

10 Andrew Gaze

201 cm

Grd

11 Neil Mottram

205 cm

F/C

12 Greg Blake

196 cm

Grd

21 Lanard Copeland

198 cm

Grd

23 Nathan Taylor

201 cm

Fwd

24 Luke McMillan

200 cm

Fwd

33 Stephen Hoare

201 cm

Fwd

34 Marcus Timmons*

201 cm

Fwd

41 Matt Rueter*

203 cm

Fwd

50 Mark Bradtke

209 cm

Ctr

 






 

  4 Pero Vasiljevic

208 cm

Ctr

  9 Michael Hill

197 cm

Grd

12 Emmanuel DCress

182 cm

Grd

13 Brad Williams

201 cm

Fwd

14 Cameron Rigby

201 cm

Fwd

21 Keith Bridges*

202 cm

Fwd

32 Brendan Mann

180 cm

Grd

41 Blake Truslove

44 Matthew Knight

204 cm

204 cm

F/C

F/C




























  American ABA Rookies Defy Odds; Takes on NBL
 
 
Few americans have come through the ranks of the ABA division and play on the NBL Level. The most recognizable players being Mike Kelly of the Townsville Crocodiles whom treked through the ABA level for seven years before getting his shot. Damon Lowery of the Wollongong Hawks who played in the ABA for eight years before landing him a spot on an NBL roster and David Biwer who played in the ABA for ten long years before landing a home with the Victoria Giants. Amazing enough there are two players that played in the ABA SEABL division just this season that we will see in action when the Canberra Cannons take on the Melbourne Tigers in Devonport Tasmania. 203cm Matt Rueter of the ABA Knox Raiders will be suiting up for the Melborne Tigers and 202cm Keith Bridges of the ABA Kilsyth Cobras will be dawning a Canberra Cannon singlet to face off against his ABA counterpart.
Rueter, a force in the paint, leads the SEABL in scoring with 27 ppg at 55% from the field and is one of the top five rebounders with 11.6 rebounds per game. A major accomplishment for Rueter and his Knox Raider squad this season was to defeat Lute Olson NCAA Div I Arizona Wildcats while they were in Australia. The team could not enjoy the victory very long because the rivals of Kilsyth visited Knox that same week and upset the Raiders in a 106-93 battle with Rueter scoring 32 points, 12 boards in 47 minutes of play. "Matt is a solid player whose dominance in the ABA had us interested in seeing what he could bring to the NBL" assistant coach Al Westover stated.
Bridges is an extremely versatile player that is taking on the task of playing several positions for the Cobras, mostly the forward spots and is really the only bright spot for the team. Averaging 21 ppg at 47% from the field with 8.8 rebounds per match currently ranked second in three point percentage at 44% and third in block shots at 1.5 per match. In the game versus Rueter and his Knox Raiders Bridges accumilated 33 points 8 rebounds in 34 minutes of play. "KB is an athletic player that can do many things on the court. He has accurate parking lot shooting range and jumps like a kangaroo. Puts me in the mind of a Scottie Pippen, Rick Fox type of player and we have him with us in this pre season game as an alternative in case our signed imports do not come through as expected." head coach Cal Bruton. It will be interesting to see how these two americans handle themseles in NBL competition