Bench job is fine by Penney

He may have started the new campaign in an unfamiliar role off the bench but it’s all the same to Breakers veteran Kirk Penney.

After struggling to make an impact in the season opener and being laid low by a stomach virus early in the week, Penney reminded everyone of his class with a superb shooting display at Auckland’s Spark Arena on Friday as the Breakers opened their account in thrilling fashion over Sydney Kings.

The 36-year-old Kiwi great scored a game-high 25 points, draining six of nine from beyond the arc, before import DJ Newbill made a clutch last-second lay-up to secure an 87-85 victory.

With coach Paul Henare opting to go with Newbill at shooting guard, the former league MVP has entered foreign territory - at least in his Australian NBL career - starting from the bench in the first two games. And that is unlikely to change anytime soon after Newbill starred with 22 points and seven rebounds to go with his late heroics.

Penney has no issue with the coach’s decision, though, and with performances like he pulled out on Friday night, he could yet prove to be ace up the sleeve for Henare.

‘‘You’re on the court you play ball and compete. Honestly, it’s just playing,’’ Penney said.

‘‘If you’re starting or if you’re coming off the bench, as soon as you get on there you do what you do. For me, I’m just trying to play the best basketball I can.

‘‘Paul and I have spoken about it. We’ve got a great lineup in the starting five and we’ve got some real good guys coming off the bench and that’s the depth we want.’’

After leading by 13 points at halftime, Penney admitted the Breakers should have closed out the contest much earlier as the Kings drew level with three seconds to go.

But with turnovers held to nine, the bench combining for a total of 46 points, and the team showing great composure at the death, this was a significant step up from last week’s error-ridden defeat to Cairns.

‘‘It just felt like we’re coming together as a team a bit more,’’

Penney said.

‘‘There’s some periods where offensively it felt like we’re having empty possessions and defensively our scout could be better.

‘‘But by the same token, there were some mistakes early on and we corrected them really well. We stuck with the process and kept going forward.’’