BIO: Ben Allen was born in Melbourne (VIC) and began playing basketball as a junior with the Diamond Valley basketball program. Allen received a scholarship to attend the Australian Institute of Sport (Canberra) in 2004. He spent one year there and played for the program’s state league team.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Ben Allen made his NBL debut with the Townsville Crocodiles at 23 years of age. He scored four points in his first game.

As a rookie, Allen averaged 3.2 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 0.4 assists as the Crocodiles finished in second place (17-11).

2011/12
After losing in the semifinals for three straight years under coach Trevor Gleeson, the Crocodiles chose to move in a different direction, replacing him with US coach Paul Woolpert. Townsville also chose to move on from imports Will Blalock and Rosell Ellis, replacing them with former NBA guard Eddie Gill and Elvin Mims. The team retained the majority of their local roster from the previous season, the only major change being Jacob Holmes (via Adelaide) and Townsville junior Mitchell Norton replacing Nathan Crosswell (to Adelaide) and the retiring Brad Williamson.

Just prior to the season kicking off, Russell Hinder would suffer a broken leg that would see his sidelined for the entire NBL season. Greg Vanderjagt, who was unable to make a NBL roster the season before, signed on as a late replacement.

Peter Crawford (14.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.6 assists) and import Eddie Gill (13.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.9 assists) led the way statistically, but a breakout season from Todd Blanchfield (7.2 points and 3.3 rebounds), which took him from the end of the bench to being a member of the starting unit, gave the Crocodiles a completely different look. Blanchfield saw his minutes double from 9.7 to 21.3 per game and his ability to space the floor (shooting 47% from the field) made it far easier for frontcourt players Jacob Holmes (10.4 points, 9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists), Luke Schenscher (10.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 2.2 assists) and Mims (9.7 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.3 steals) to score in the paint.

Townsville floated between third and fifth spot all season but a late season slump, where they lost the final two games of the season, dropped them to equal fourth place, equal to record to the Cairns Taipans (15-13). With Townsville and Cairns also having a 2-2 record in their head to head matchups, Townsville’s higher points percentage gave them the final playoff spot and dropped Cairns into fifth place.

Under the guidance of head coach Shawn Dennis, Townsville faced off against first seed New Zealand in the semifinals, comfortably winning game one (99-82) on the Breakers home court. Despite the Crocodiles strong form in game one, the Breakers evened the series in game two (83–94) at Townsville, before closing out the series in 17-point win in game three (97–80). New Zealand would go on to defeat Perth in the Grand Final series.

Despite seeing limited playing opportunities with the Crocodiles, Allen played in all 31 of the club’s games, averaging 2.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 0.3 assists.

2012/13
The 2012/13 season saw Allen average 3.7 points, 2 rebounds, and 0.4 assists and play a key role in helping the Crocodiles to a seventh place finish in the regular season with a 10-18 record.

SYDNEY KINGS
2013/14
During the 2013/14 season Allen averaged 0.4 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.1 assists and helped the Kings finish the regular season in a sixth place (12-16).

Ben Allen played four seasons in the NBL, playing for both the Townsville Crocodiles and the Sydney Kings. He averaged 2.7 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 0.2 assists in 101 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (815 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.