Basketball New Zealand

Tony Ronaldson receives an unsportsmanlike foul from referee Gavin Whiu (Photosport)

Sportal
The Burger King NZ Breakers managed to hold off a fiery Gold Coast Blaze outfit to claim a tough 109-94 win and keep their NBL playoff hopes alive at the North Shore Events centre on Thursday night.

The Breakers, who chalked up their fifth consecutive win, were on top for a majority of the game thanks to another top-scoring performance by skipper Kirk Penney with 26, while Rick Rickert was solid in his return from injury, picking up nine rebounds.

American import Kevin Braswell was another influential player in the Breakers win, keeping his side in the game with 14 points, six assists and five steals.

Two New Zealand internationals playing for the Blaze – Mika Vukona and Craig Bradshaw – both played brilliantly, with Vukona having a particularly sharp-shooting game with 24 points and seven rebounds.

The Breakers now have to win their final game against Cairns and hope for two of the teams above them on the leaderboard to suffer back-to-back defeats.

Penney was into the action straight away, his first attempt finding the net with an early three-pointer while Blaze guard Adam Gibson was controlling things well for his team.

Braswell also started well for the Breakers, as did young forward Jeremiah Trueman, who was standing up to the solid Blaze players under the net and securing some good rebounds.

A couple of quick three-pointers to Tom Abercrombie and Oscar Forman stretched the home side’s lead out to 29-16 at the first-quarter break.

The Blaze started the second quarter strongly, scoring eight unanswered points and outmuscling the Breakers who were forced to foul and lost possession.

A controversial call on big Breakers forward Tony Ronaldson allowed the Blaze to sneak even closer, with New Zealand international Vukona doing some real damage to bring up 10 points.

Rickert was having a scratchy start and was unable to convert his offensive rebounds into points as he was smothered by the Blaze defence.

The Breakers were able to hold a slim 53-50 lead into the halftime break, a disappointing quarter for the home side though who had well-and-truly let the Blaze back into the game through too many fouls.

It took over a minute for any points to be scored in the third quarter as both sides tried desperately to add some quick points and draw first blood in the second half.

Rickert had found his game however, claiming his sixth rebound of the night to help get his team out to a good lead. The sixth was Rickert’s 600th rebound for the Breakers, third on the all time rebounding list.

Two three-pointers to Vukona and fellow Tall Black Bradshaw quickly dragged the Breakers back to even the scores for the first time of the match after five minutes in the third quarter.

Gold Coast tool the lead for the first time with a little over two minutes left on the clock in the third quarter although a big worry was Bradshaw sitting on four fouls, needing just one more to be fouled out of the match.

Braswell was outstanding in the final stages of the third quarter, nailing a three-pointer, a steal and two rebounds to help his side to a 81-75 lead moving into the final quarter.

The Breakers were able to increase their lead in the early stages of the final quarter with a three-pointer to Braswell and Ronaldson.

Bradshaw finally received his final foul of the night with four minutes to go, forcing his side to play catch-up without one of its tallest players.

Penney fired in the last seconds of the match, as he often does, to see his side home to claim a big 109-94 win.

Burger King NZ Breakers 109 (Kirk Penney 26, CJ Bruton 14, Tony Ronaldson 11, Dillon Boucher 11, Kevin Braswell 11, Oscar Forman 10) Gold Coast Blaze 94 (Mika Vukona 24, Chris Goulding 19, Craig Bradshaw 15, James Harvey 14, Erron Maxey 12)
Breakers v Blaze Box Score