Breakers stun Melbourne away
Paul Henare’s Breakers, minus their grieving star guard Kirk Penney who remained in New Zealand, produced arguably the upset of the young ANBL season to stun title favourites Melbourne United 88-76 in their home opener at Hisense Arena on Sunday.
In a superbly committed, skilful and disciplined display, the Kiwi club played the star-studded Melbourne outfit off their own floor as they secured a third straight victory to improve to 3-1 for the season – good enough for second spot behind undefeated defending champs the Perth Wildcats (3-0).
Melbourne’s second defeat for the round, they also lost 89-84 at Perth on Friday night, drops them to 2-2, and delivers a stern reminder that a big-name roster alone does not guarantee you success in this league.
It was a victory coach Henare will savour, too, against his former Breakers colleague Dean Vickerman who has taken the reins in Melbourne.
He clearly had the better game-plan as his side locked down the dangerous Melbourne backcourt of Casper Ware and Chris Goulding brilliantly to continue their dominance over the Victorian franchise.
They have now won nine of their last 10 matchups.
Ware and Goulding combined for just 13 points on four of 19 shooting as the Breakers players defended soundly.
Sure, they gave up a gamehigh 22 points to Melbourne’s former NBA big man Josh Boone and 20 to the slick Casey Prather (as well as six boards and five assists), but no one else on the impressive home scoresheet topped the double-figure mark.
Conversely, the Breakers produced a balanced offensive effort, led by an outstanding 21 points (7/14 FG, 3/7 3PT) and three rebounds from Tom Abercrombie who picked up the slack left by the absence of his old mate Penney who is with his family preparing for the funeral of his father Paul.
Imports Edgar Sosa (17 points, five assists, three boards) and DJ Newbill (15 points, seven rebounds, three assists) also put in top shifts at both ends, drawing the bulk of the defensive assignments on Ware and Goulding.
Alex Pledger chipped in with eight points and four boards, Finn Delany and Shea Ili brought the energy off the bench to add nine points apiece and the redoubtable Mika Vukona was all hustle and bustle from the outset to provide a lot more than his modest statline of six points, three rebounds and three assists reflected.
‘‘That was a big win for us,’’ said a happy Abercrombie afterwards.
‘‘We were excited to come play tonight. We were up for this one and I thought we played prtty good.
‘‘I like this place. It’s always a great atmosphere and as a player you feed off that. It’s a fun place to play.’’
The Breakers had produced a quality first half to lead 45-43 at the major break, behind 13 points from Newbill and 11 from Sosa.
They also played the major roles in limiting the dangerous Ware and Goulding to just three combined points.
The Breakers exposed Melbourne’s flimsy interior defence.