Breakers Deep-Six 36ers
Tagged in: NZ Breakers
Joel Tiller, Sportal
A devastating fourth quarter onslaught from the NZ Breakers has seen them win their first ever Australian NBL home playoff game, 131-101 over the Adelaide 36ers at North Shore Events Centre on Thursday night.
For the Breakers guard CJ Bruton caught fire in the fourth quarter as he nailed five straight triples in the period to bury Adelaide’s semi-final hopes and propel the Breakers to their highest ever NBL score.
While Bruton’s (26 points) remarkable fourth period shooting spree put an exclamation mark on New Zealand’s win, star guard Kirk Penney (31) was typically outstanding shooting 57% from the field including five treys of his own to keep his team in front through-out.
Centre Rick Rickert was back to his athletic best with yet another double-double of 15 points and 14 rebounds.
For Adelaide Brad Hill showed he was a player of the future with 32 points while Adam Ballinger had 22 and Rod Grizzard 22.
It was an impressive team performance from a Breakers squad that boasted six players in double figures compared to Adelaide’s three.
New Zealand’s defensive intensity was fierce for three out of four quarters, allowing to Adelaide outscore them in the second quarter only.
Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis credited an excellent defensive performance for his team’s rampant second half scoring.
“I think the essence for us is always our intensity at the defensive end 22 and 24 in those first two quarters wasn’t bad but from about the sixth minute mark in the second quarter we really started to get some stops and generated a lot of confidence, some of those three point shots were starting to look pretty open.
“To put 81 points on the board on the second half is putting a lot of pressure on the opposition,” he said.
Contrary to their home court norm, New Zealand shot out to an 11-4 lead as Penney and Rickert looked comfortable from the outset.
Soon the near capacity crowd was stretching its lungs as a swarming double team from Tony Ronaldson and Rickert forced a turnover from 36ers danger-man Ballinger in the Breaker’s key.
Penney then drove an early dagger into the visitors’ hearts with two silky treys on consecutive attacks to stretch the difference to 17-5 while the 36ers went scoreless on four straight possessions.
Nine minutes in, Dillon Boucher was sent to the charity stripe as Aaron Bruce put his team into the penalty foul for the first time.
At the other end livewire 36ers guard Brad Hill was keeping his team alive with 10 quick-fire points as he made a series of nice cuts inside the New Zealand key for easy points.
Prodigously talented young Breakers swingman Thomas Abercrombie closed the first quarter proceedings with a sweet fade-away jumper to make the score 33-22.
Immediately in the second Hill picked up right where he left off; with a jump shot and a cool triple to immediately trim the deficit to five.
Adelaide were looking sharper as forward Rod Grizzard began picking up his driving game off the dribble and provided nice dishes to Brett Maher and Ballinger for treys to further cut the lead. With six remaining in the second Adelaide were only three behind.
With Penney sitting out most of the second quarter due to three early fouls New Zealand’s outside shooting was going cold. Dangerous sixth man Phill Jones was the only Kiwi to find the hole after seven previous team attempts failed and the first 24 minutes ended 50-46 to the Breakers.
At the half Penney and Hill were the stand-out performers for their respective teams with 13 points for the Kiwi and 20 for the Adelaide sharp-shooter.
Both teams pulled up their shooting socks in the third with Grizzard, Maher, Ballinger and Hill nailing treys to rub out a pair of triples from Ronaldson and one from Bruton. Ballinger was showing signs of hitting a purple patch as he followed his bomb with a pair of silky long fieldgoals from just inside the arc.
Penney wowed the crowd as he kept his team nine ahead with a sensational swivel and release trey just as Adelaide looked like gaining momentum.
With Boucher in typically feisty form New Zealand picked up its defensive intensity substantially in the third while Jones and centre Tim Behrendorff keept the board ticking over with useful cameos off the bench.
With five seconds left in the third Grizzard rimmed out two of three free throws and Adelaide allowed Jones to get free on a fast break from the restart. The former Tall Black international then raised the Events Centre roof by sinking a running buzzer beating trey from five metres inside his half run to give the Breakers a 13 point lead heading into the fourth at 86-73.
The intensity went up another notch four minutes into the fourth as Bruton slotted a remarkable long range triple to put the Kiwis 12 ahead. Penney then added further momentum with his third trey after a quick transition attack and Bruton then provided the knock-out blows; extended the lead to 104-82 with his fourth and fifth treys of the period.
Adelaide was forcing its shots in desperation and the writing was on the wall as Penney took his the difference to 25 points with another bomb.
With two minutes remaining Lemanis had the almost unthinkable luxury of clearing his bench in a playoff game as the clock wound down to mark a maiden Breakers home play-off win.
Next New Zealand travels to the State Netball and Hockey Centre to begin their three game semi finals series before returning to Auckland for game two on Friday.
Should the semis series be drawn one-all a tiebreaking third game will be held back in Melbourne on Sunday night.
NZ Breakers 131 (Kirk Penney 31, CJ Bruton 26, Rick Rickert 15) Adelaide 36ers 101 (Brad Hill 32, Adam Ballinger 22, Rod Grizzard 22)
Breakers vs 36ers Box Score (21KB html)
