Boti Nagy's NBL Round Rebound #4: USFs all the rage in a busy weekend for the refs King Tom Garlepp goes in hard for a drive to the basket. UNSPORTSMANLIKE fouls, individual brilliance and the crash of the Hawks featured in another mostly thrilling round of NBL basketball across Australia and the Tasman. Adelaide 36ers beating the reigning champion Breakers in Auckland was marred by an incident inside two minutes from halftime when referees Vaughan Mayberry, Dallas Pickering and Tim Brown got it oh so wrong. NZ power forward Mika Vukona had given up a hard foul on Sixers swingman Mitch Creek on the break and because both were airborne at the time, it was deemed unsportsmanlike. Blog LIVE with Boti Nagy right now - just scroll down Few would argue but 36ers big man BJ Anthony, unhappy with the treatment Vukona had dished out to his teammate, rushed in to remonstrate. Third man in = automatic USF. By the way, USF is the official designation for "unsportsmanlike foul." (Yes, UF ,makes more sense to me too or even FU, which I often think anyway. But I digress...) In come the boys for a little argy bargy but honestly, I've seen more aggro in a playground sandpit. Vukona chases back after his Tall Blacks understudy and so is hit with a second UFO. (Oops, sorry. No-one threw a can. That should read USF.) Two USFs in the same game means automatic expulsion so Vukona is out. But then, to the shock of the listeners - because the refs were miked - Brown pipes up with: "If one's got to go, they've both got to go." When did that become a rule? Or is that a new referee self-preservation concept: if you're throwing out a hometown favourite you'd better throw out one of the opposition's too? Sixers coach Joey Wright was fuming at halftime and let the TV audience know. That had the NBL getting its knickers in a twist. But they unbunched very quickly when referees manager Mal Cooper confirmed what we all knew. The refs got it wrong. Fast forward to Sunday and the 36ers are hosting Sydney. AJ Ogilvy and Anthony Petrie become entangled and with the momentum of breaking loose, Peach sends the Kings' centre crashing to the floor. USF for Petrie. No issue. Then AJ's teammate Tom Garlepp rushes in to remonstrate. Order is restored, referees Raoul Kirsten, Nathan Durant and Benn McDonald confer to correctly conclude the two USFs cancel each other and it's Sydney ball from the baseline. Memo refs in Auckland. That's how it's done fellas. Speaking of showing how it's done, Jermaine Beal was all over it for Perth with 5-of-5 threes to start the game against Wollongong. Charles Carmouche had 33 in Sydney's win over Townsville and 27 in its loss to Adelaide. And Chris Goulding continued his MVP claims with 34 points as the Tigers beat the Taipans in Cairns. It was always going to be a defining weekend for the Hawks, facing last season's grand finalists, with the Wildcats in Perth and New Zealand at Wollongong. A 40-point road loss was NOT what the doctor order in the west - unless it was the Fremantle Doctor - though losing gallantly at home was actually better than you might think, considering starters Larry Davidson and Oscar Forman were ineffective due to injury. There's a shade of irony. Laz and the Big O were the only two members of last season's starting five NOT to get injured. ADELAIDE 36ERS 96 (G Ervin 22 J Frye 18 A Gibson 15 A Petrie 15) d NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 93 (R Te Rangi 22 K Johnson 17 A Pledger 16) at North Shore Events Centre. Hot shooting by Adam Gibson allowed the 36ers to race away to a 22-point lead at one stage before the twin ejections of Vukona and Anthony ahead of halftime left NZ with a lot of work to do. Vukona's absence and foul trouble for Tom Abercrombie opened the door for Reuben Te Rangi who had a third-quarter coming-out party with 14 points, including four triples. Big baskets by Anthony Petrie and Gary Ervin down the stretch ensured the 36ers got the W, their first in the club's past 16 meetings with New Zealand. Adam Gibson is put on watch by Breakers point guard CJ Bruton. SYDNEY KINGS 88 (C Carmouche 33 A Ogilvy 17 B Hill 15) d TOWNSVILLE CROCODILES 86 (B Conklin 19 J Pace 18 T Blanchfield 14) at Townsville Entertainment Centre. Charles Carmouche left no-one in any doubt why the Kings recruited him with a 33-point tour de force against the Crocs in Townsville. Two of his triples erased Townsville's late six-point lead, opening the door for Brad Hill to "do a Ben Allen" - no, not fall asleep on the bench (shame on you for thinking that) - but drop in the game-winning basket. It was Townsville's second home loss and made more expensive by the hamstring injury to Mirko Djeric. Charles Carmouche takes a jump shot against the Townsville Crocodiles. Leave Damian Martin open for the three. That's been the mantra but Wollongong paid dearly when Damo struck an early pair. Then Beal went postal from behind the arc as the Wildcats equalled their best start to a season (6-0), the 40-point win the most lopsided contest in the two teams' 92-game history. Their NBL game 1001 was memorable for both teams for vastly different reasons, the Hawks' 47 points equalling their lowest score set in their debut 1979 season. Memo Kevin Tiggs: Don't take any more dunking tips from Zac Delaney. Shawn Redhage pushes past the Wollongong defence. MELBOURNE TIGERS 86 (C Goulding 34 M Worthington 13 A Ballinger 9 L Walker 9 S Morrison 9 A Ubaka 9) d CAIRNS TAIPANS 74 (J Wilson 17 C Tragardh 12 S Weigh 10) at Cairns Convention Centre. Chris Goulding played snake-charmer for the Taipans on Saturday, Cairns with no way to resist the swingman whose coach Chris Anstey described him as: "something this country hasn't seen before." Like a unicorn. En route to his season-high 34 points, The Unicorn had a run of 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting in just over six minutes of the third quarter. That changed the complexion of the game with Melbourne sprinting from five up to 16, then 18 and this one was over. Some dunking actiopn during the Cairns Taipans v Melbourne Tigers NBL match. NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 97 (A Pledger 19 M Vukona 18 D Corletto 15) d WOLLONGONG HAWKS 89 (R Clarke 36 K Tiggs 18 T Coenraad 12) at WIN Entertainment Centre. It's no real wonder centre Alex Pledger and power forward Mika Vukona would go for 19 and 18 points respectively at 80 per cent - OK, maybe the percentage is a surprise - when Wollongong's centre Larry Davidson and power forward Oscar Forman were non-factors in the game. The Hawks duo was limited to 10 and 16 minutes respectively, Davidson rolling his ankle in the second quarter - he has scans today - and Forman with multiple issues. He already was nursing a severely bruised and swollen shooting hand after a heavy fall in Perth, then copped a poke in the eye creating double vision. Trust me. Two of Mika Vukona is NOT what you want to be seeing. With all that factored in, the Breakers would have been happy to break their drought with an eight-point win, despite Rotnei Clarke going off for a round-high 36 points. ADELAIDE 36ERS 97 (D Johnson 20 G Ervin 19 M Creek 14) d SYDNEY KINGS 84 (C Carmouche 27 A Ogilvy 22 B Madgen 16) at Adelaide Arena. The Kings came out aggressively, with AJ Ogilvy causing havoc with a 10-point first period. But after AJ, it was Adelaide's DJ, Daniel Johnson coming up with some numbers and the 36ers' bench - most notably Mitch Creek - sparking the home team. BJ Anthony also had some moments making this a red-letter day for AJ, BJ and DJ. CJ Bruton sends his regards. Charles Carmouche was hampered by early foul troubles while two quick fouls on Sixers' import Jarrid Frye meant he sat early and long, which did little for his recovering ankle injuiry and made him a non-factor. Adelaide's 31-point last quarter was a huge difference, Gary Ervin active and Sydney running out of steam. Jason Cadee and Jesse Sanders got toe-to-toe. This Week: Friday: Cairns at Sydney, Melbourne at Adelaide, New Zealand at Townsville Sunday: Wollongong at Melbourne Blog LIVE with Boti Nagy today from High Noon in Adelaide, 12.30pm eastern