Basketball New Zealand

Tony Ronaldson had a season-high 23 points but could not prevent the short-handed Breakers falling to the 36ers (Photosport)

Marc Hinton, Fairfax Media
The New Zealand Breakers were left counting the cost of a tough Australian National Basketball League loss to the Adelaide 36ers in Auckland last night that may yet have serious repercussions on the next stage of their season.

Undermanned and underpowered, the Breakers, already without the suspended Phill Jones, could not overcome the loss of star point guard CJ Bruton to a back injury in the warmups and went down 86-96 to the 36ers.

The defeat dropped the Kiwi franchise to 7-3 for the NBL season and improved the 36ers to 4-5 as they claimed their second win on the trot. It also completed a dramatic turnaround for the Adelaide side who were whipped by 38 in their round-three visit to the North Shore Events Centre.

With the Breakers due to leave Friday afternoon for a tough three-game road trip that sees them play Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday at Melbourne, Cairns and Townsville respectively, coach Andrej Lemanis was left contemplating some serious challenges over and above the testing nature of the trip.

The good news is he will get Jones back, and after their offence dried up badly against the 36ers that will be a relief.

But immediately after the 36ers game Lemanis did not know the medical prognosis for Bruton who felt back spasms after getting up from his seat following a pre-game presentation to record-breaking forward Tony Ronaldson, and was unable to take the court.

Ronaldson, who stepped up offensively with 23 points in the defeat to the 36ers, also suffered an ankle injury late in the match that will have the medicos anxiously evaluating his readiness prior to hitting the road.

“I’ve got nothing for you … I don’t know,” shrugged a frustrated Lemanis when asked about the readiness of his crocked players to make the road trip. “I asked the physio and he said he’s got to get his log book out and write down everything that’s wrong…

“We’ve got a couple of injuries. I know Bear was limping at the end.”

Lemanis conceded it was “not ideal” with the road triple-header so close, and the side due to spend all 10 days across the Tasman. “But everyone goes through times of the season when you get presented with these challenges. I think the group will step up and make the adjustments.

“The other thing is I’d much rather be doing it at 7-2 rather than 2-7. We’ve got a little bit of breathing space there.”

Once Jones and Bruton were out, it was always going to be a banana skin match for the Breakers who hung in there for most of this encounter, but just fell short on scoring power when it mattered in the last three minutes.

Kirk Penney produced a gritty 24 points (7/22 FG), 10 boards and five assists, and veteran Ronaldson made some big shots on a 23 point-six assist night, but aside from Rick Rickert‘s 18 points (though just three rebounds) the big two just had too little support at the offensive end.

The 36ers were paced by outstanding American forward Adam Ballinger with 22 points and seven boards, while compatriot Mark Tyndale had 21 and nine for the winners. Both nailed three of four three-pointers.

Big Luke Schenscher, a former NBA player, was also a thorn in the side of the Breakers with a valuable 20 points (6/9 FG).

It certainly wasn’t the most auspicious of starts for the Breakers after Bruton went down and left the home side seriously down on scoring power and personnel in their guardline.

But thanks to eight first-quarter points from the NBL’s new appearance record holder Ronaldson (including two long-range bombs) and a half-dozen from Penney the Breakers did well to be tied 22-22 at the end of the opening stanza.

At times it was almost painful on offence as the Breakers dearly missed the 34 points a game their missing pair serve up, but the New Zealanders dug deep, and actually managed to take a lead, 43-42, into the sheds at halftime.

Realising their only hope of victory was to keep the scores low, the Breakers played some of their best defence of the season through the first two periods and behind 12 first-half points from Penney (4/10 FG) and 11 from the Bear, Ronaldson (5/13 FG), made it more than clear they weren’t going to cough this one up without a pretty decent fight.

It had looked ominous when the 36ers began the second period with a 12-0 run, but after a Dillon Boucher layup finally stopped the bleeding, the home side went on an 11-2 burst of its own to get back on track. Consecutive treys from Ronaldson, Oscar Forman and Paul Henare helped and when they also managed to pick up a third foul on Adelaide giant Schenscher (12 first-half points) it completed a promising comeback.

But this was always destined to be a tight one, and so it stayed heading into the final period, with the visitors, thanks to 16 third-quarter points from smooth American Ballinger, leading by a solitary point, 70-69.

Luckily for the Breakers energetic centre Rikert had also come to life in the third period with 10 points of his own to keep his team right in it.

It was close right through the final period until just under the three-minute mark when Tyndale came down and nailed a three-point play, then a three-pointer, Ronaldson and Penney both missed from long range at the other end and the visitors had skipped out to 89-83.

A Schenscher layup made it eight with 1:20 remaining and from there the mountain was just too high for the Breakers who now head off on a three-game road trip (Melbourne Tigers, Cairns and then Townsville) that looks decidedly difficult.

Lemanis said the loss of Bruton came “at the worst possible time” and combined with the absence of Jones left Henare shouldering a massive burden at the point. Rookies Thomas Abercrombie and Corey Webster both received court-time and showed glimpses of their promise.

“We gave it a go and had opportunities down the stretch,” said Lemanis… “They made their shots and we couldn’t quite make our shots when we needed to.

“I thought our defence was decent, though Ballinger hurt us a bit in the third quarter when we took a while to make adjustments on him. But we battled.”

Just not quite till the end. For the Breakers this morning’s medical report will be awaited anxiously. They could do with some good news.

NZ Breakers 86 (Kirk Penney 24, Tony Ronaldson 23, Rick Rickert 18) Adelaide 36ers 96 (Adam Ballinger 22, Mark Tyndale 21, Luke Schenscher 20, Jacob Holmes 13, Aaron Bruce 10)
Breakers vs 36ers Box Score (27KB html)