Ili honoured as most improved player
A good week for dynamic Breakers backup point guard Shea Ili just got even better.
Late last night at the Australian NBL’S awards dinner in Melbourne, Ili was named the league’s most improved player to cap an outstanding regular season with the semifinal-bound Breakers.
He was the only Breakers player to land an individual award, though outstanding point guard Edgar Sosa was named in the ALL-NBL second team.
The 25-year-old Ili not able to attend the dinner as he was travelling back from a hugely successful two-game road stint with the Tall Blacks in their Fiba Asia World Cup qualifying games.
On Friday night the New Zealand men, also coached by Breakers mentor Paul Henare,
toppled China 82-73 in Dongguan, and then on Monday night backed that up with a quality 93-84 victory over Korea in Seoul.
Ili, who was a key performer in both those contests, had been considered a frontrunner for the most improved award throughout a
breakthrough season in the ANBL in which he has more than doubled his points and assists output.
The feisty guard averaged 9.2 points, 3.1 assists and 2.9 rebounds in 21.5 minutes a game for the Breakers in 2017-18. That’s well up from the 4.4 points, 1.4 assists and 1.9 rebounds he ran up in 18.3 minutes a game in 2016-17.
Ili also improved his field goal shooting from 30 to 38 percent and his three-point accuracy from 32 to 35 as he has become a crucial member of Henare’s bench unit with his trademark energy and aggression off the pine.
Sosa was named in the second ALL-NBL second team after a regular season that saw him average a team-high 16.1 points, 3.9 assists and 2.0 rebounds for the Breakers, shooting 42 percent from the floor, 39 from deep and 83 from the line.
Perth Wildcats point guard Bryce Cotton won the Andrew Gaze Trophy as the league’s Most Valuable Player, finishing well ahead of Demetrius Conger (Illawarra) and Jerome Randle (Sydney) in voting. No Breakers player featured in the top 15 for the supreme individual award.
Former Breakers mentor Dean Vickerman was named coach of the year after guiding Melbourne to the minor premiership, and a semifinal matchup against his old club that will get under way on Saturday, while Perth’s Damian Martin continued his stranglehold on the defensive player award.
Cotton was joined by Melbourne’s Casper Ware, Conger, Adelaide’s Daniel Johnson and Melbourne’s Josh Boone in the ALLNBL first team.
Sosa, Sydney’s Jerome Randle, Perth’s JP Tokoto, Adelaide’s Mitch Creek and Melbourne’s Tai Wesley combined for the second team selection.
The NBL’S playoffs open on Saturday, with Melbourne hosting game one of their best-of-three semifinal against the Breakers at Hisense Arena, and defending champions Perth visiting Adelaide for their opener.