Thrilling victory has Henare in good heart
As Paul Henare says, sometimes it’s not about the Xs and the Os, sometimes it’s just about the ‘‘heart and character’’.
The New Zealand Breakers coach was definitely putting his side’s thrilling overtime 87-86 victory over the Wildcats at a packed Perth Arena on Sunday night into the latter category, the Kiwi club eking out an unlikely win via the cool hand of Corey Webster and the outstretched one of high-energy import Akil Mitchell.
The Breakers’ second road victory of the Australian NBL season put them back over .500 at 5-4, and equal third with the Brisbane Bullets who also carved out a quality road victory in Cairns on Sunday in a result under protest after the last 1:37 of the game was abandoned following a power outage, with the visitors leading 84-76.
Henare was rapt with his side’s ability to find a way to win after a mammoth rebound count in the home team’s favour. The Wildcats snared 26 off the offensive glass and won the overall battle of the boards 59-40 against a Breakers outfit that prides itself on its work in this part of the game.
‘‘That was just a really gutsy win,’’ reflected Henare after his side had played in Auckland Friday night and made the long haul to Perth on Saturday. ‘‘We came off a tough loss to Cairns at home, and to come all the way over here, I’m just extremely proud of the guys.’’
Henare was at a loss to explain how his men managed to overcome such a lopsided rebounding count.
‘‘That’s an unbelievable number,’’ he said of the 26 extra possessions their opponents snared.
The Breakers needed a little bit of luck allied with some big plays down the stretch, and got both after the game finished locked at 79-79 in regulation. In the extra period Mitchell scored the first six Breakers points (two buckets via tap-ins), and Webster made the game-winner with a twisting drive to the rim and a flip shot that found its way in.
But the Breakers needed to slip out of a tight spot, down 86-83 with 21 seconds remaining when Jaron Johnson converted two free-throws.
Out of a timeout they went for a quick two via a Kirk Penney drive to the hoop. It missed, but Mitchell swooped for the tip-in to make it 86-85 with 16 seconds left.
From there the basketball gods smiled on the Kiwi visitors. Johnson, who has already been sacked once and brought back from the dead, turned the ball over with an errant pass with 10 seconds left, just before it appeared Penney (15 points on five-of-17 shooting) was about to foul him.
Then up stepped Webster to finish the job.