Henare braced for big test
A huge tick for the first part of the season but Breakers coach Paul Henare knows the hard work is just starting.
The Breakers headed into the international window well entrenched at the top of the Australian NBL standings after notching up their ninth consecutive victory with a 90-82 win over the Brisbane Bullets in front of their biggest home crowd of the season at Spark Arena in Auckland yesterday.
The Kiwi outfit were far from their best, and were forced to overcome the late withdrawal of veteran star Kirk Penney, but erupted in the second half with a threepoint barrage, draining 13 in total at 44 per cent to move to 9-1.
A big part of the squad, including the coach, now head into camp with the Tall Blacks for this week’s FIBA World Cup qualifiers against South Korea and Hong Kong before returning to play Perth at home on December 1.
And while the team is well ahead of expectations at this stage of the campaign, Henare says the added strain from the internationals will be a significant test for the organisation.
‘‘Obviously we wanted to get off to a good start knowing this break is going to be here,’’ Henare said.
‘‘I’m really pleased with where we’re at and now we have a different challenge thrown at us in terms of how we manage the guys who are and aren’t involve with the Tall Blacks.
‘‘It’s new so we’ll find out in a couple of weeks.’’
As they have done for most of the season, import duo Edgar Sosa and DJ Newbill led the way against Brisbane with 24 and 19 points respectively, with Sosa draining four from beyond the arc.
Shea Ili also had a huge fourth quarter, springing to life after a quiet game to grab 16 points.
Some of the air was taken out of the crowd of 5715 before tip-off when Penney was ruled out due to a back complaint.
But Henare played down the issue, saying he expects the 36-year-old to be back on deck to take on the second-placed Wildcats.
‘‘He didn’t pull up so well from the flight home from Perth [last
"I'm really pleased with where we're at."
Paul Henare, Breakers coach
week]. He probably could’ve played but we’ve got a break coming up and rather than set him back another 10 or 15 per cent, we thought we’d rest him.’’
Despite taking a one-point lead, it was a flat first half from the home side. The Bullets did a great job of slowing down the Breakers’ offence, while they also negated one of their great strengths this season, edging the rebound battle 23-16 (and 49-34 overall).
Brisbane’s hard work was rewarded at the start of the third quarter as they surged to a ninepoint lead. The Breakers clearly missed Penney’s shooting off the bench early, shooting just three of nine from deep in the first half.
But just when you thought the Bullets would pull away, the Breakers responded with a threepoint blitz to wrestle back the momentum – and the lead with it.
Newbill went back-to-back before Rob Loe made it three in a row, while Finn Delany also chimed in with one of his own much to the dismay of Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis.
‘‘I thought we played with great energy and intent,’’ the former Breakers mentor said.
‘‘They had some guys who were not great three-point shooters make some threes and that’s the way it goes. Finn Delany’s a 30 per cent three-point shooter and he makes a tough one in the corner contested and that’s hoops. To their credit some guys made some shots that needed to make some shots.’’
Ili nailed his first two triples at the start of the fourth quarter to give his team an eight-point advantage.
The Bullets reduced it to four with four minutes to go but that was as close as they got.