Mody Maor began his tenure as the 8th Breakers Head Coach, following Jeff Green, Frank Arsego, Andrej Lemanis, Dean Vickerman, Paul Henare, Kevin Braswell and Dan Shamir, with a 101-97 overtime loss at Melbourne United on Sunday.
It’s the second occasion the Breakers have been taken to overtime on the opening game of the season. The last time was two seasons ago when Tai Webster scored 34 points in a 94-91 loss at the Adelaide 36ers.
Despite the loss there was a lot to like about the Breakers performance.
New imports Derek Pardon (23 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks), and Barry Brown Jr (23 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists) both impressed on debut.
Pardon’s double-double is the first on debut for the Breakers since Rick Rickert posted 19 points and 12 rebounds against Cairns Taipans on the opening game of the 2007-08 season.
Will McDowell-White threatened a triple double with 9 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists – those 13 assists a new career high.
Rob Loe continued the good form he displayed with the Auckland Tuatara in the NZNBL recording 12 points and 4 rebounds before retiring to the bench with a, hopefully not serious, ankle injury.
The other player in double figures was Izayah Le’afa, the Wellingtonian guard scoring 13 points on his Breakers debut.
Loe’s 12 points took him to 800 points for the Breakers. In addition with 108 games under his belt he sits 14th on the Breakers all-time appearance list.
With 7 assists logged against Melbourne United McDowell-White needs just 3 more assists to tally 200 dimes for the club. After just 45 games he is already up to 13th on the Breakers all-time assists list, averaging 4.4 assists per game.
The next assignment for the Breakers is a home game against the Tasmanian Jack Jumpers at Vector Arena on Friday night – October 7th, tip-off 7.30pm. Get along and support the team as they play the first home game since June 5, 2021.
LACEY LOWDOWN 