Breakers Douse Blaze
Tagged in: NZ Breakers
Matt Blomberg, Sportal
The New Zealand Breakers held off a surging Gold Coast Blaze to record a 116-113 win in a heart-stopper at the Gold Coast Convention Centre on Saturday night.
After trailing at every change, the Blaze drew level with a minute to go in the Hummer Championship NBL round six game but the Breakers kept hitting key shots to keep them at bay.
Kirk Penney was brilliant for the visitors throughout, but it was a superb shooting cameo from Oscar Forman which set up the win in the opening stanza.
Forman was dealing almost exclusively in three-pointers; he hit three in the first quarter and went on to make six of eight and finish with 24 points.
The Breakers were unstoppable in the first period; they racked up 40 points (14/19 field goals) including six threes and led by 12 at the first break.
Penney got away with some cheap baskets by running the floor hard and it looked as though the Blaze would surrender after backing up from a tough road loss the previous night.
In the second, the Blaze looked to go inside to the big men, Greg Vanderjagt answered the call picking up quick baskets and getting to the foul line to keep his team in the game.
Phill Jones then got his eye in, nailing a pair of threes to keep the home side at bay; the Breakers led 64-52 at half time.
Forman and James Harvey traded bombs to open the second half before the Blaze went to Luke Whitehead who produced points in the paint to drag the lead back to eight.
Whitehead waged a physical battle with the Breakers bigs and played most of the game with foul trouble. Rick Rickert did a solid job on Whitehead defensively limiting the import to just six points.
In the fourth quarter the Blaze showed strong character to fight through sore legs and when Daniel Joyce found Casey Frank on the baseline for a trademark throw-down, and one, the adrenalin kicked in.
A three from Shane Heal and another Frank dunk reduced the lead to two, but it seemed every time it got within reach a New Zealand sharp shooter would sink another dagger.
Jones and CJ Bruton hit clutch threes to stretch the lead to eight again and it looked a repeat of last rounds clash where the Breakers ran away from the Blaze late.
Brendan Joyce called a time-out and on the ensuing play Harvey stepped up and nailed a huge three from well beyond the arc, Frank then stole the ball and Harvey successfully launched another from the same angle but a metre deeper.
With the lead back to two and three minutes remaining, the Breakers again turned to Bruton who came into the match only when required and he delivered under pressure, again stretching the lead back to five.
Then, after spending the majority of the match on the bench, Pero Cameron was called upon in the last minute where he nailed a three and a crucial tip in to tie the scores for the first time since 0-0.
With enough time left for one play each, the Breakers went to a cold Tony Ronaldson who made a long distance shot leaving the Blaze one chance to tie; Heal had the last say but his three rattled out leaving the Gold Coast winless (0-9).
Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis was happy with the overall performance of his side.
“We did a good job of keeping our composure down the stretch and we made the plays to get over the line”
Blaze coach Brendan Joyce was left to wonder what could have been after a busy schedule made the players tired.
“We’ve had a tough two days… if we had been a little bit fresher, maybe we would have got off to a better start, especially at the defensive end”
“I am the type of coach who doesn’t give up, so i dont expect them (the players) to give up”
The Breakers improved to 5-2 and will take on the Wildcats at home on Thursday while it doesn’t get any easier for the Blaze who travel to Melbourne to take on the premiers on Saturday.
New Zealand Breakers 116 (Kirk Penney 30, Oscar Forman 24, Phill Jones 18) Gold Coast Blaze 113 (James Harvey 30, Casey Frank 18, Shane Heal 16)
Breakers vs Blaze Box Score (21KB html)
