Blaze Quelled
Tagged in: NZ Breakers
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The Harvey Norman NZ Breakers sustained a four-quarter effort over the Gold Coast Blaze to run out comfortable 11 point winners, 90-79, in their HUMMER NBL Championship clash at the Gold Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Led by star shooting guard Kirk Penney (22 points) and import centre Rick Rickert (19), the Breakers were never headed after conceding the first basket of the game to Blaze point guard Jason Crowe.
Rickert shot 8/9 from the field to go with 13 rebounds in just 25 minutes playing time, proving a handful for the home side, who looked a bit jaded after back-to-back games.
The Blaze flew back from Sydney on the morning of the game after a tough loss to the Razorbacks the previous night with injury concerns surrounding Juaquin Hawkins (groin), who was below his best, and Ben Melmeth, who could only play 10 minutes before sustaining a shoulder injury.
The Breakers played very physical all night and were very patient in offence where they created many high-percentage shots, resulting in an overall shooting percentage of above 50% for the game.
It was the Breakers’ defence that most impressed coach Andrej Lemanis.
“I thought we really locked it down defensively,” he said. “You have a look at the shooting percentages and that would be an indicator of that, you keep a team to 79 (points) and it gives you a chance to win a lot of basketball games.”
Blaze coach Brendan Joyce was philosophical about the loss, preferring to look at the bigger picture rather than the magnitude of the defeat.
“Tonight was more a disappointment rather than a setback,” he said. “We didn’t get too high after last week (21-point win against the Taipans), we are not about to get to low now.
“We have got to keep things in perspective, it’s a long season. We are aspiring to make the play-offs and we had an opportunity where we probably weren’t expected to make the top four and we blew that as a lot of young teams do.”
For the Blaze, Pero Cameron was a focal point with 17 points and 8 rebounds, ably supported by Scott McGregor who had 16 and 8 rebounds.
The Blaze, now have seven days break, before they take on the Razorbacks again, this time on their home court. Melmeth (shoulder) and Hawkins (groin) are both expected to be fit, whilst James Harvey (heel) will appreciate the time off.
The Breakers are starting to look very dangerous and produced perhaps the most impressive display yet from a visiting team to the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Harvey Norman NZ Breakers 90 (Kirk Penney 22, Rick Rickert 19) Gold Coast Blaze 77 (Pero Cameron 17, Scott McGregor 16)
Box Score – Breakers v Blaze (html 53KB)
