NZ Breakers 90-79 Perth Wildcats

After dropping one at home last week to the might of Josh Childress and the will of the Sydney Kings, the Breakers bounced back in impressive fashion to deal one out to the third placed Perth Wildcats at Vector.

This was the fourth game in eight days for Perth, and they finish that stretch with just a single win. The Breakers were without Alex Pledger, which meant a start for Uncle Kenny Ibekwe. Just as is usually the case with this team on a good night, they got helping hands from all around. Five different players scored in double figures, and four different guys had at least 6 rebounds.

The game started evenly, as the two hot rivals traded initial shots. Corey Webster and Tom Abercrombie firing for NZB. By the time Duane Bailey hit an early jumper in the second, the lead had ballooned out to 10 for the Breakers, however they wouldn’t score again for over three minutes when Corey Webster nailed a triple with the scores tied.

But by half time the lead was back up to 13 and Corey Webster had blown everything away with 17 points. He then missed all four of his second half efforts to remain on 17 for the game, though his teammates stepped up. Tai Wesley had a big second half, Abercrombie hit a few (he was in fine form getting on the ol’ lob passes) and Uncle Kenny hauled in some boards.

Perth just didn’t get the performances they needed from their top guys, fatigue was probably a factor. Shawn Redhage, who was playing through an illness, had the first scoreless game of his 321 game NBL career. Jermaine Beal and DeAndre Daniels needed to be the key guys, yet they finished with 10 of 30 shooting between them. Daniels scored 20 points, Damien Martin added 19.

For the Breakers nobody overhauled Webster’s 17 points. TA had 16, Ibekwe 12 & 8, Wesley 11 & 7 and Mika Vukona 6 & 7. Cedric Jackson had a quiet game following on from his ejection last week, he scored 10 with 3 assist, 2 rebounds and 4 turnovers.

After last week’s sleepy performance, it was great to see the effort all the way back up against a dangerous team (even if they are struggling). There’s no place that the effort shows more than on defence, and keeping their opponents to 79 points after giving up 101 at the same venue a week earlier is a credit to that.

FINAL SCORE - 90-79 - BREAKERS WIN! #W #BREAKERNATION
— New Zealand Breakers (@NZBreakers) January 29, 2015

Cairns play a home to Wollongong on Sunday. They win and they’re back tied with the Breakers on top. They lose, and first place is NZB’s alone. The two play each other in the final game of the regular season, Feb 22 in Cairns.

Stocks:

Movin’ On Up Like Curtis Mayfield – Well it just has to be Tai Wynyard, right? As if making your second appearance of the season at aged 16 wasn’t big enough, it also happens that Young Master Wynyard had a pretty major announcement earlier this week. He became the first player to declare for the University of Kentucky’s 2016 recruitment class, one of the absolute premier college basketball systems. UK, coached by the great John Calipari, has 18 current NBA players that came through their ranks, including stars like John Wall, Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe. So, yeah, this is kind of a big deal. Plus he got 93 seconds off the bench at the end of the game against Perth. Boom, big week.

Goin’ Down Slow Like Howlin’ Wolf – Cedric, but in a good way. The team just showed that they can win well in a tough game where he’s not quite showing it. Cedric Jackson is still the man you want with the ball in his hands for the final play of a tied game. He shouldn’t have to carry them there as well, and it looks like he doesn’t have to.

Key Stat

Nobody fouled out this time. Always a nice thing to see.

Play of the Game

There are a couple of ‘Lob Pass To Abercrombie’ nominees, but to be honest this one, where he did it all himself, was the prettiest highlight of the lot.