Basketball New Zealand

Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis slammed his team's performance in game one on Wednesday (Photosport)

Johnathan Healy, Sportal
The Melbourne Tigers have edged one step closer to a fourth consecutive grand final appearance by posting a 117-99 victory over the NZ Breakers in the opening match of the best-of-three semifinal series at the State Netball and Hockey Centre on Wednesday night.

It was all one-way traffic right from the opening tip as the Tigers took a 15-point lead into half-time and never let up from that point on to eventually cruise to victory.

The Breakers may have been the best three-point shooting side during the regular season, but the Tigers were dominant in that area in this clash, with David Barlow, Ebi Ere and Luke Kendall in particular deadly from beyond the arc.

That trio combined for an impressive 12-of-18 from three-point range, with the Tigers shooting a more-than-handy 50 percent (16-of-32) from beyond the perimeter compared with 41 percent (14-of-34) from the Breakers.

Kendall finished with a game-high 25 points for the Tigers, but the 23-point haul from Barlow and 22 from Ere were just as influential in the final result.

CJ Bruton (22 points) tried hard for the Breakers, but Kirk Penney (19 points on 7-of-17 shooting) and Tony Ronaldson (18 points) were his only team-mates to provide support.

Tigers coach Al Westover was overjoyed with the victory and said it was a near-perfect win.

“I thought we did an incredible job guarding their players from the perimeter,” Westover said.

“We only had six turnovers and we had 21 assists and when they were putting some decent pressure on us in the second half.”

Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis lamented his side’s poor start and said it was very uncharacteristic for how his team has performed in the first period throughout the season.

“What was disappointing was the way we came out,” Lemanis said.

“The energy, inspiration and desperation we brought to our defence the other night (against Adelaide) wasn’t the same one that you saw at the start of tonight’s game.”

“They set the tone early in terms of the hustle plays and getting into it defensively and we never really recovered from there.”

Any fears that Chris Anstey’s (eight points, 10 rebounds) knee injury would slow the Tigers was put to rest early in the contest when the big centre nailed a three to open the scoring as the home side skipped out to a 15-5 lead.

Westover showed just how pumped up he was by racing on to the court cheering, but Ronaldson hit back-to-back triples after a time-out to sit the Tigers coach back down as the visitors went on an 11-0 run to tie it up (18-18) midway through the first.

The Tigers shot an impressive 70 percent from long range in the opening term, but it was a trademark floater from Daryl Corletto (five points) that gave the hosts a five-point (31-26) advantage at quarter-time.

Ronaldson’s three personal fouls in the opening stanza may have been the main concern for Lemanis after the opening 12 minutes, but he had more pressing matters to worry about when the Tigers opened up a 15-point (53-38) lead with six to go in the second.

Kendall was doing the damage off the bench, Ere was pumped up and Barlow added to the Breakers’ woes when he hit a late triple to put the Tigers up by 15 (61-46) at the major break.

Lemanis shook things up at the half by moving Paul Henare (seven points) into the starting line-up ahead of the hugely ineffective Oscar Forman (three points, seven rebounds) and the move looked to have paid immediate dividends when the Breakers cut their deficit by five to trail by 10 early in the third.

The Tigers responded with an 8-0 run and although Anstey was called for his fifth personal foul with four minutes remaining in the third, Dave Thomas (15 points, seven rebounds) replaced him and threw down a huge tip-dunk to allow the home side open up a match-winning 23-point (93-70) break at three-quarter-time.

A triple from Bruton early in the final term allowed the Breakers to draw within 15, but that only sparked Kendall, Thomas and Barlow into action as the Tigers regained control and took the upper hand in the semi-final series.

Game two will be held at the North Shore Events Centre in Auckland on Friday night, with the Breakers needing to win that match to stay alive.

Melbourne Tigers 117 (Luke Kendall 25, David Barlow 23, Ebi Ere 22, Dave Thomas 15) NZ Breakers 99 (CJ Bruton 22, Kirk Penney 19, Tony Ronaldson 18, Rick Rickert 14)
Breakers vs Tigers Box Score (21KB html)