Penney Takes PoW
Tagged in: NZ Breakers
New Zealand Breakers sharpshooting guard Kirk Penney has taken out the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) Player of the Week award for Round One after a 41-point explosion against the Wollongong Hawks.
Penney ‘went off’ against the Hawks in the Breakers season opener at the North Shore Events Centre on Thursday 18 September, hitting for a game and career-high 41 points on 16-of-22 field goal shooting (73%).
The former NBA player connected on 6-of-10 three-point attempts and was also a perfect three-of-three at the line as the Breakers opened their account for season 2008-09 with a 114-93 win over the Hawks.
Penney also added six rebounds and three assist to take the NBL award for round one, which was a split round over two weeks, from Melbourne Tigers import Ebi Ere and Adelaide trio Aaron Bruce, Brett Maher and Mark Tyndale.
Rookie Bruce in particular was a standout in his first game for the 36ers, scoring 22 points and adding 10 assists in a stunning debut performance.
Penney said he wasn’t really aware that he had scored so many points during the game.
“I never really felt like the numbers were stacking up that big for me, I just kept getting great looks at the basket and shooting the ball. That is the benefit of having guys like CJ Bruton, Oscar Forman and Phill Jones working the perimeter. If the shot isn’t on for any of us, we are able to give someone else a good look with that extra time to get a good shot away.”
The New Zealand star played down the importance of his points bonanza in true understated style.
“The points for me are a bonus, simply a by-product of a good second half performance that delivered the all important ‘W’ for the team.”
Breakers head coach Andrej Lemanis praised Penney’s versatility after the match.
“The great thing about Kirk tonight was he didn’t have to go outside our offense to get those numbers,” Lemanis said.
“He put up about as many shots as we expect him to, it is just that he didn’t miss many. He wasn’t having to force the issue but when he got a look, it was generally a good one on the back of some good movement of players and ball within our pattern.”
Others in consideration for Player of the Week included Matt Knight (Sydney), Rosell Ellis (Townsville), Corey Williams (Townsville), Glen Saville (Wollongong), Dusty Rychart (Wollongong), Shawn Redhage (Perth), Martin Cattalini (Cairns), Mark Worthington (South), Cortez Groves (South), David Barlow (Melbourne) and Chris Anstey (Melbourne).
