Breakers Shot Down
Tagged in: NZ Breakers
Marc Fox, Sportal
The Brisbane Bullets have set up a mouth-watering semi-final clash with the Tigers after sweeping away the challenge of the Harvey Norman NZ Breakers 106-89 in their HUMMER Championship NBL quarter-final at the Brisbane Convention Centre on Saturday night.
The Breakers had enjoyed their first invite to the post-season party in the club’s five-season history with a 100-78 elimination final victory over Cairns on Thursday.
But their second date with the playoffs was a loveless affair for the most part as the defending champions ruthlessly set up a repeat of last season’s final.
Just as the mercury was rising this weekend in southeast Queensland, the Bullets scorched the Breakers in the second quarter, outscoring the visitors by a remarkable 41-18 to take an unassailable 19-point half-time lead.
That advantage hardly wavered after the break with the irony that it was two New Zealanders in Craig Bradshaw and Dillon Boucher who sparked the Bullets into life certain not to have been lost on the visiting camp.
Bradshaw finished with 23 points and added 10 boards, but it was a verbal roasting from Boucher which was the side’s quarter-time catalyst.
Boucher, a player whose influence in this Bullets side continues to outstrip some of his bigger name team-mates, spelled out his colleagues’ shortcomings during the first interval as a sluggish Brisbane languished 25-21 behind the finals debutants.
“The boys looked flat so I just came out and thought I’d give them a rev up and it seemed to work,” said the Tall Black international. “We’ve got some fantastic players on this team but sometimes they need a kick up the butt.”
Bradshaw, however, needed little extra motivation against a side he claimed pre-match was running scared of the Bullets and one which he has enjoyed a rocky relationship with since turning up in Brisbane at the season’s start.
The 24-year starter, hot off a double-double against the Hawks last Saturday, was the only Bullet to find his range in a Breakers-dominated opening term.
And even though import Derrick Alston (22 points) was winning that individual battle early - the American scoring his side’s first eight points as the New Zealanders appeared to be riding high on the momentum of that extraordinary second-half against Cairns - Bradshaw gradually rose to the occasion for the second successive week.
His long-range triple early in the second kick-started a 15-point unanswered run, but he also contributed as much hussle and hurry-up as Brisbane supporters had seen in his maiden NBL season.
“Craig pulled us through that (early) stretch very well and got us going,” praised Bullets coach Joey Wright.
Frustrated New Zealand counterpart Andrej Lemanis had a long chat with referee Scott Butler at the close of the second quarter but it didn’t change his side’s fortunes after the break.
Having key defender Orien Greene on the bench with five fouls didn’t help as the Bullets blew their margin out to 21 at three-quarter time.
Green lasted just 10 seconds of the fourth before he fouled out.
It took another 11 minutes 50 seconds for the Breakers to bow out of the finals after an impressive third season under Lamanis.
“We couldn’t find a way to get it going in that second quarter. We just came off the heat a little bit and obviously a team like the Bullets make you pay,” the Breakers coach said afterwards.
“Certainly that second quarter cost us our season in the end.”
The Bullets now face two semi-final matches in 24 hours with Game One in Melbourne on Wednesday and the Game Two in Brisbane on Thursday. The potential decider is scheduled for Sunday.
Brisbane Bullets 106 (Craig Bradshaw 23, Ebi Ere 22, Dusty Rychart 22)
Harvey Norman NZ Breakers 89 (Kirk Penney 24, Derrick Alston 22, Tony Ronaldson 14)
Breakers vs Bullets Box Score (52kB html)
