Breakers bounce back in style
This was why new Breakers coach Kevin Braswell went so hard after Tai Wesley over the Australian NBL off-season.
Wesley came at a steep price on the back of winning a championship (his second in four years in this league) with Melbourne United, not the least of which was that the Kiwi outfit could not hold on to club legend Mika Vukona with the hard-nosed American back on their books for a second stint.
But yesterday, against his old Melbourne United club, in their own home opener at Hisense Arena, Wesley demonstrated palpably what a superb competitor he is, and why Braswell was prepared to pay whatever the cost was to lure him back across the Tasman for his second stint at Atlas Place.
The 32-year-old former Guam international led the Breakers superbly to a muchneeded bounceback 88-81 victory on the back of their disappointing 86-73 season-opening loss to Brisbane on Thursday. He torched his old club for a game-high 25 points (9/22 FG, 7/7 FT), courtesy of an array of muscular and crafty inside moves, and added six rebounds and a pair of assists for good measure.
The Breakers had to survive a few shaky moments late as their 12-point final quarter advantage shrank to four with a minute to go but steadied in the nick of time to become the sixth straight road side to tick off a victory in opening round.
‘‘You have to come back with a little chip on your shoulder and put on a show,’’ said Wesley afterwards, in reference to matching up against his old club.
‘‘We took a hard look in the mirror. I don’t think we gave the effort [against Brisbane] we did tonight. Our goals are never to drop two in a row and we came into a hostile environment and did what we had to do.’’
On a night when Corey Webster could get nothing going offensively (just 7 points on 3-of-12 shooting), the Breakers also got bigtime production from experienced small forward Tom Abercrombie and new import guard Patrick Richard.
Abercrombie became the Breakers’ alltime highest scorer, surpassing fellow Kiwi hoops legend Kirk Penney with his 16 points on 8-of-12 shooting. After an off-key outing against the Bullets, it was a much-needed return to form for the springy three man who added five rebounds to a solid statline.
Richard showed his quality over the final two quarters to also pitch in with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting to go with four boards and three assists.
Chris Goulding led Melbourne with 22 points (7/15 FG), David Barlow added 15, Mitch Mccarron 14 and ex-breaker Alex Pledger a busy 10 points and seven rebounds off the bench. But the home side, who lost import DJ Kennedy to an ankle injury before tipoff, probably ran out of puff after their epic 123-122 quadruple-overtime victory over Illawarra on Friday night.
The Breakers were chasing a positive start but got the opposite as they squandered 10 first-quarter offensive rebounds to shoot a miserable 28 per cent (8 of 28) for the opening stanza. Despite taking twice as many field goal attempts as their opponents, the Kiwi outfit trailed 28-19 at the first break because their offence was as shoddy as Melbourne’s work on the defensive boards.
Thankfully, from a Breakers’ perspective, they found a much better offensive rhythm in the second period and charged to a five-point halftime lead (47-42) on the back of a 28-14 quarter on 9-of-16 shooting.
Wesley clearly came to play against his old club, pouring in 21 first-half points on 7-of-12 shooting, with 15 of those coming in an explosive second quarter when he tore up the United defence inside. The power forward was a perfect 7-of-7 from the line and added four rebounds in an outstanding first couple of periods.
Abercrombie was in aggressive mode, too, after his opening game struggles when he finished with three points on 1-of-5 shooting.
The 11-year NBL small forward went 6 of 7 from the floor as he slipped in a dozen firsthalf points to go with four rebounds.
The Breakers maintained their five-point advantage after a 24-24 third period, with import Richard finally breaking the shackles offensively and Webster getting off the schneid with a couple of timely hoops, to finish the opening round 1-1. Next up are the Sydney Kings at home next Sunday.