Basketball New Zealand

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NZ Breakers guard Wayne Turner (Photosport)

Mike Kilpatrick
The Harvey Norman NZ Breakers scored a thrilling overtime 98-92 victory over a determined Singapore Slingers at the North Shore Events Centre in the Australian Hummer NBL Championship.

Big scorers in the game were Kirk Penney for the Breakers with a game-high 30 points and Rod Grizzard for Singapore with 25. Rick Rickert kept up his impressive rebounding statistics with 14 in the game to take his season total to 108.

The game ebbed and flowed, with Singapore in control for most of the first-half before New Zealand stepped it up in the second. A nine-point lead looked to have sealed the game for the Slingers, but a last minute comeback took the game to overtime.

Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis said he was a little worried going into the game as his players werenít as fresh as he would have liked.

“We just drifted through the first quarter,” said Lemanis. “(But) I think the guys showed some tremendous courage to win from where we were.

“It was one of those games that we could have just easily let slip away. They are the sort of games that make a difference at the end of the year.”

In the game’s initial stages, the visitors may have scored first but it was the Breakers who started stronger as an early Penney three-pointer gave New Zealand a four-point advantage.

The reliable Rickert also showed his prowess on the attacking boards with five early rebounds as the hosts sought to bounce back from their loss to the 36ers in the previous game.

But Singapore hit back to regain the lead as some slack Breakers shooting and the missing of easy lay-ups stopped the scoreboard ticking over.

The scoreboards then started malfunctioning, causing breaks in the game and confusion on the sidelines as the officials tried to work out what was going on.

But the pauses in the game did not seem to affect the visitors, the Slingers taking a nine-point advantage into the quarter-break.

At the start of period two, New Zealand scored early three-pointers through Penney and Oscar Forman, but problems were still evident. This was emphasised by a Penney pass which put Wayne Turner in the clear, but wasn’t gathered and dribbled out, handing possession back to Singapore.

But the Slingers could not take further advantage and slowly, as they have done multiple times this season, the Breakers started to work their way back into the game.

The lead was cut to three-points with three minutes left in the half, but then Singapore shots started to drop, an intercept and free throws pushing the lead back out to nine and undoing the hard work by the home team.

Two free-throws from Tony Ronaldson brought the first-half to a close, with the Slingers sitting on a 45-39 lead and shooting at 42.1 per-cent compared to the Breakers 29.3 per-cent.

New Zealand drew level quickly at the start of the third period – a turnover from Grizzard and then a three-pointer for Paora Winitana tying the game at 46 points.

The Breakers snatched the lead for the first time since early in the first with a Mika Vukona free throw, but Singapore kept responding as the game stayed tight.

Heading into the two-minute stretch New Zealand had a three-point lead after Phill Jones scored his first points of the game from the free throw line only for Blagoj Janev to tie it up from outside the arc.

With the seconds running out ex-Breaker Hayden Allen stepped up to score from beyond the line, giving Singapore a 62-59 three-quarter time lead.

The Breakers started the final period firing and took the lead with 11 minutes left from a Winitana maximum, but Grizzard continued to impress and between him and Janev they put the Slingers back in the driving seat.

Lack of fluency continued to frustrate the Breakers and by the time Grizzard scored a maximum to cap a nine-point run, the Slingers appeared in complete control.

However New Zealand has shown this season it can never be discounted and a five-point rush from Penney closed the game to three points.

But when Penney missed with a three-point effort with under a minute left to leave the home side five-points down the game looked over. However a Turner steal and a Forman maximum tied it at 82 all. Singapore held possession, looking to count down the clock before trying to score, but Vukona stepped up with the steal and drew a foul from Janev.

He scored with his second to give the Breakers the lead and from the possession Penney was handed two from the line. He duly obliged and the home crowd sensed victory. But not to be outdone Grizzard stepped up with a massive three-pointer to take the game into overtime.

Baskets were shared in the early part of overtime but the pressure seemed to tell on both sides as the otherwise reliable Mike Helms missing two from the line and then a long three-pointer as the clock ticked to under two minutes.

The Breakers then ran away with it in the last 60 seconds, forcing Singapore to foul and handing New Zealand easy points from the line. The clock finished with the home side six-points ahead.

The 5-5 Breakers fly out to the Gold Coast tomorrow to play the Blaze on Sunday night, while the 2-9 Slingers return home to host the Adelaide 36ers on the same night.

Harvey Norman NZ Breakers 98 (Kirk Penney 30, Wayne Turner 19, Paora Winitana 14) Singapore Slingers 92 (Rod Grizzard 25, Mike Helms 22, Blagoj Janev 16)
Box Score – Breakers v Slingers (html 54KB)