Basketball New Zealand

December 5, 2008

Joel Tiller, Sportal
The Townsville Crocs have comprehensively ended the NZ Breakers six-game winning streak, shooting the lights out for a 104-88 victory at the North Shore Events Centre.

The Crocs outpointed the Breakers in every facet of the game as the home side came out flat and never looked likely to fully ignite.

Conversely Townsville’s shooting was red-hot throughout, out-Breaker-ing the Breakers from outside the arc with phenomenal long-range shooting.

Brad Williamson (18 points) in particular excelled with a perfect 5-of-5 three-point shooting, four of which came in a third quarter where the visitors outscored the Breakers by 11 points.

Also excellent for the Crocs’ in a powerful team performance were forward John Rillie, whose hand was red hot with 16 points and guard Michael Cedar also fired with 18 (4-of-6 from outside the arc) points.

For the home side an out-of-sorts Kirk Penney managed 24 points (0-of-5 three pointers), but appeared to be still struggling with a hand injury that he has carried through three games.

Oscar Forman maintained his accurate form with 16 points, including four long bombs but there was precious little support from the rest of the roster.

Townsville coach Trevor Gleeson was a quietly satisfied figure post-match.

“We really stuck to our game plan tonight, which was a lot better than what we’ve done in the past,” Gleeson said.

“We shared the ball really well amongst our shooters and that made it really hard for them to defend the lane when we drive with our bigs. It was a good overall performance for us.”

And Gleeson said his defensive strategy was simple, but well executed.

“We wanted to really contest their threes, get hands in faces and they also missed some wide open shots tonight and some others that were due to our defence,” he said.

“Guys are playing and understanding their roles a lot better and the guys are starting to understand better exactly where they fit into the team.”

Penney said his team wouldn’t be dwelling on their worst performance of the season.

“We shot the worst we’ve shot all year, but we’re not going to get to down on ourselves,” Penney said.

“We’ll take the two weeks off, recover and be ready for the next battle. We’re a good offensive team, we know we are and we’ll be back in no time.”

As has become the Breakers’ curious norm, they started sluggishly on their home court, spluttering to their lowest first quarter total of the season.

Rillie had eight points in the first, and started by punishing a Boucher turnover with a transition trey, the visitor’s second within six minutes as the Crocs shot out to an 18-11 lead.

Another transition three - Cedar’s second - had Townsville out to at 10-point lead as turnovers continued to plague the hosts.

As Penney mysteriously lost control of the ball in mid-court, Rillie took the Crocs’ trey stats to 4-1 over the Breakers.

Early in the second period, Townsville’s lead extended to 11 at 33-22.

Off the bench at quarter time, guard Kelvin Robertson wasted no time introducing himself to the game with a pair of sharp triples either side of two Forman replies – 39-25.

Tight Townsville inside defence was steadily choking the life from the hosts’ scoring as they repeatedly failed to capitalise on defensive stops.

But they finally sparked into life late via a 10-point run initiated by five quick points generated by Penney drives into the lane.

Dillon Boucher then halted the Crocs scoring with back-to-back steals and CJ Bruton cut the deficit to eight with a spectacular three-point lay-up-play from a wide and acute angle.

But that as was as good as it got for the home fans.

More fluent fast attack scoring from Russell Hinder and Rillie re-established the Crocs’ ascendancy, a buzzer beater lay-up seeing Townsville ahead 55-45 at half-time.

The score sheet was looking pretty for the Crocs at the break with Robertson, Rillie and Rosell Ellis all contributing eight points each while Cedar was leading the way with nine.

For New Zealand, Forman and Penney were carrying the load with 13 and 10 respectively with no other team-mate in close proximity.

The stats sheet was brutal reading for New Zealand - seven turnovers to Townsville’s three and 3-of-12 from outside the arc versus 7-of-13 from the visitors.

The table leaders’ shooting percentages were also uncharacteristically poor at 18-of-44 while the Crocs were sharp at 20-of-40.

With seven minutes gone in the third, the hosts were still trailing by 10 as Williamson slotted his second and third treys, while Penney continued to misfire with a pair of replies.

The Breakers shooting machine was clearly well off his efficient best, but compensated with some determined drives to the bucket to keep his side in touch.

Meanwhile, Williamson kept on making hay in the sun, nailing a pair of smoothly taken wide open threes as the Breakers repeatedly found themselves out maneuvered by superior ball movement.

Without Rickert on the court, New Zealand was lacking on the boards and a five-point run from Rillie took the margin to 19 with just over a minute left in the third.

That lead had grown to 21 by three-quarter time and the Breakers’ heads were collectively down as they trudged to the sideline huddle.

Forman’s fourth trey took a sliver off the deficit – 15 points – but the Crocs killed that glimmer of hope with four rapid-fire points from Corey Williams and Cedar’s fourth trey.

The game was over with eight minutes remaining as Williams took his tally to 14 with repeated inside scoring.

The Breakers (13-4) enjoy a two-week break before playing Sydney on December 18 in Auckland, while the Crocs (8-7) host the Spirit at the Townsville Entertainment Centre this Saturday.

Townsville Crocodiles 104 (Brad Williamson 18, John Rillie 18, Michael Ceder 16) NZ Breakers 88 (Kirk Penney 24, Oscar Forman 16, Rick Rickert 13)