Breakers open with loss in overtime
AUCKLAND: In the ANBL, there are certain players who will take over a game if you let them. The newlook New Zealand Breakers have learned Melbourne United recruit Xavier RathanMayes falls into this category.
In their first outing of the season, the Breakers fell to a 10197 overtime loss away to Melbourne in a competitive clash, with doitall guard RathanMayes steering the hosts home with 33 points. Among those points were two big threepoint shots in overtime — though he was lucky the referees did not check one as replays showed it wasn’t released before the shot clock expired.
Statistics were against the Breakers coming into the game — they claimed the wooden spoon a season ago and had lost their last seven matches against Melbourne. But the New Zealand side were strong throughout the contest. Import big man Dererk Pardon was well utilised in pickandroll play, rebounded well, showed hustle on both ends and attacked the rim with purpose to earn himself trips to the freethrow line.
Fellow import Barry Brown jun started out hot, scoring 10 of the Breakers’ first 15 points and causing problems for defenders in oneonone situations, while Will McDowellWhite ran the offence nicely.
Coming into the season, coach Mody Maor had noted his desire for the Breakers to be led by their defensive effort. There was a lot to like on that end against Melbourne, but there were some occasions where defensive lapses or failed rotations led to Melbourne finding wideopen looks from beyond the arc.
With the shooters at their disposal, these were often free points. Melbourne ended the match shooting at 47% from deep, while the Breakers, who showed plenty of patience to work good looks both inside and outside the arc, shot just 25% from threepoint range.
The Breakers opted to run a big starting five, with McDowellWhite and Brown jun starting alongside big men Pardon, Jarrell Brantley and Rob Loe.
That group powered out of the gate, getting stops early and rebounding well to force Melbourne into plenty of oneanddone offensive sets.
However, Melbourne began to work out the Breakers defence as the quarter went on, trailing by just two at the break, before turning things around and holding a threepoint lead at halftime, led by RathanMayes’ 14 firsthalf points.
The match continued to go backandforth in the second half; if one team started inching away, it wasn’t long before the other pulled the score back.
Ultimately, it was Melbourne which was able to pull away in overtime, with RathanMayes taking over the game and guiding his side to an opening win. Scores—
Melbourne United 101 (Xavier RathanMayes 33 points, Chris Goulding 24), New Zealand Breakers — (Dererk Pardon 23, Barry Brown jun 23). 1Q: 2022 HT: 4542 3Q: 6967. 4Q: 8888. —