NEW Zealand moved a step closer to a first National Basketball League finals appearance and doused West Sydney’s hopes of a late run to the play-offs with a 113-97 away win over the Razorbacks.
Trailing by seven points at quarter-time and three at the half, the Breakers stormed all over the Pigs in the second half of their clash at Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre.
The win kept the Breakers in seventh spot and on course for their maiden NBL finals campaign in their fifth season, while the 10th-placed Razorbacks dropped to 9-13.
Sparked by 17 second-quarter points from Kirk Penney and a decisive 11-0 run late in the third quarter, New Zealand recorded their fourth win in 10 away games this season.
Penney finished with a game-high 26 points from 10-of-15 field goal shooting and was well backed-up by Oriene Greene (20), Tony Ronaldson (17), Derrick Alston (16) and Oscar Forman (13).
The Breakers shot at a healthy 54 per cent clip from the field while the misfiring Razorbacks converted just 35 per cent of their attempts.
Import guard Troy DeVries topscored for West Sydney with 22 and was primarily responsible for their 48-21 advantage in bench scoring.
Graeme Dann contributed 16 and Liam Rush 15 for West Sydney, who enjoyed a 55-46 rebounding advantage.
The writing was on the wall even at half-time for West Sydney even though it held a 65-62 advantage at a time.
West Sydney was again too reliant on their perimeter shooting and while they hit nine of their 13 three-point attempts in the first half, they only shot 41 per cent overall from the field.
It was a frenzied and fast-paced game in which the shot clock was almost an irrelevant accessory as both teams fired off quick shots.
There were seven lead changes during the first quarter which ended with West Sydney holding a 37-30 buffer.
Veteran forward Ronaldson sparked the Breakers early in the game with 11 points in the first quarter and also contributed nine rebounds for the game despite returning from the locker room at half-time with tape over his left eye and under his nose.
The second half started with five more lead changes before New Zealand took control.
The Breakers outscored their hosts 28-12 in the third quarter to lead by 13 at the final change amd swelled their advantage to as much as 22 in the last term.
Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis said defence was the key to his side’s second half surge.
“We made them take tough shots, in the third quarter, we didn’t give them one uncontested look,” Lemanis said.
“That’s obviously the goal of every team, but we managed to execute it and that helped us get going. When you get stops, your offence comes a lot easier.”
Lemanis said the Breakers finals destiny was “well and truly” in their own hands, as they still had to play all the other teams around them on the ladder.
West Sydney made just one out of their 11 three-point attempts in the second half and coach Rob Beveridge said he was disappointed with his team’s lack of energy after the long break.
Beveridge was hoping the fatigue factor would hit New Zealand after they played in Wollongong last night, but said the Breakers were “a lot more desperate” than his side.
“We should be playing with more passion and more energy and enthusiasm, that was the frustrating thing, we should have been out over the Breakers, because they had the fatigue factor there and we didn’t do that in the second half,” Beveridge said.
“We were away from our game plan, we were really poor at finishing. We missed 21 put backs and layups, that’s just simply not good enough.”
He said while the Razorbacks never set out to make the playoffs, he wouldn’t concede that was an unattainable goal for this season as that would signify “a loser’s mentality”.
AAP
Source: Breakers move closer to finals
