Breakers Shake Off Horror Start to Overrun Kings

Adorned in the bright pink, the New Zealand Breakers showed great heart at the NBL Blitz to shake off a horror start on Thursday night to overrun the Sydney Kings down the stretch to come away with the 97-93 win.

To say the game's opening five minutes was a disaster would only partly sum up the way the Breakers opening to the contest at Melbourne's Sport and Aquatic Centre went on Thursday night.

Not only did Sydney score the game's first 14 points, but along the way Peyton Siva was called for travelling, Finn Delany for an unsportsmanlike foul and then Tom Abercrombie left the court with what appeared a hip injury.

However, they soon steadied even though the Kings maintained a lead most of the way as the pre-season competition heats up with #NBL22 getting closer every day.

From the moment Sydney led 83-74 with just over five minutes to go, it was all the Breakers as they went on a stunning 21-5 run to be up seven with under a minute left, and going on to win by four.

Jeremiah Martin continued to show that he could be a true star this NBL season delivering the Breakers 23 points, seven assists, five steals and four rebounds to go with shooting 8/14 from the field.

Yanni Wetzell had an impressive first hit out in New Zealand colours too for 19 points and five rebounds with Peyton Siva working into the game nicely to finish with 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds.

Finn Delany added 15 points, two assists and two steals while William McDowell-White contributed 11 points, five assists and five rebounds.

The Kings were on top most of the way and would have liked what they saw in the first hit out of guard Jaylen Adams who put up 16 points, six rebounds and three assists.

Jarell Martin is gearing up impressively too and had 15 points and five rebounds with Angus Glover also continuing his strong return from a knee reconstruction with 15 points.

Xavier Cooks also had 13 points and 11 rebounds, Shaun Bruce seven points and Tom Vodanovich seven.

To say it was the worst possible start for the Breakers would be the biggest understatement of the Blitz so far. In just over a minute to start the game, the Kings scored the first eight points before coach Dan Shamir called for time to talk to his New Zealand players.

It made little difference with a Jaylen Adams three stretching Sydney's lead to 11-0 before Finn Delany threw up a three-point air ball and was then called for an unsportsmanlike on Xavier Cooks, with the Kings lead growing to 12-0.

A Cooks dunk then made it 14-0 after a Peyton Siva travel for the Breakers. If all that wasn’t bad enough already, Breakers captain Tom Abercrombie then pulled up short with what looked like a hip injury and his evening was over as he hobbled from the court.

Despite all that, the Breakers didn’t give up the ghost and by quarter-time they had cut the Kings lead to six with Yanni Wetzell kickstarting them with their opening eight points of the contest.

With the Breakers having settled and worked their way back into the contest, things remained tight the rest of the way if the Kings maintained a slender edge to be up by four at half-time and then five at three quarter-time.

The Kings were still up by nine going into a timeout with four minutes remaining, but the Breakers and especially Jeremiah Martin weren’t done with yet.

Martin knocked down a three ball right in front of the Sydney bench and then pulled off a nice move and finish to level scores up at 83-83. 

Sydney answered with a three-point play on a spectacular spin move from 19-year-old Biwali Bayles but from there it was all New Zealand.

Delany and Wetzell both scored inside and then William McDowell-White drained a triple. Another three ball from Siva and suddenly the lead was five, and that became seven thanks to Martin and they would go on to win by four.

The Breakers have a quick turnaround to take on the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday with the Kings having a nine-day break before facing the Illawarra Hawks in Wollongong next Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL BLITZ

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 97 (Martin 23, Wetzell 19, Siva 18) 

SYDNEY KINGS 93 (Adams 16, Martin 15, Glover 15)

BOX SCORE