The Sky Sport Breakers split their two-game Round 9 fixtures comprehensively beating South East Melbourne Phoenix 110-84 at Christchurch Arena on Thursday but coming unstuck at Spark Arena on Saturday evening going down 92-84 to Perth Wildcats.
The story of the Perth encounter was the display of a former Breaker. Corey Webster demonstrated that on his day he is one of the premier shot makers in the NBL. The three-time championship winner scored a team high 26 points on 10 from 17(59%) shooting.
Webster poured in 16 third quarter points to put his team in the ascendancy then scored Perth’s last 4 points to seal the win. The fist pump at the final buzzer indicated the satisfaction the performance, and result, gave the shooting guard who played 236 games in a 10-year career for the Breakers.
The Breakers leading scorer this season, Barry Brown Jr, went one better than Webster tallying 27 points – his ninth 20+ score in 12 innings – but it was a night when Perth and C-Web took the honours.
On their way to two consecutive tons the Sky Sport Breakers posted 37 first quarter points against South East Melbourne Phoenix in Christchurch – the highest opening ten minute points haul the club have mounted in the 40 minute era which dates back to 2009.
It was also the first time consecutive 100+ scores have been posted since January 2019 when the Queensland clubs Cairns and Brisbane were walloped.
Here are the numbers:
Beat South East Melbourne Phenix 110-84 at Christchurch Arena on Thursday
Dan Fotu scored his first Breakers points. He scored 5 points in his sixth game of the season and seventh overall – he played once as a Development Player back in the 2017-18 season before he embarked on his 4-year collegiate career at St Mary’s College, California.
Barry Brown Jnr, the team’s leading scorer made a season best 31 points, making 4 from 6 from beyond the arc.
Will McDowell-White with 11 assists became the 11th Breaker to dish 250 assists.
Cam Gliddon scored 5 points to pass 3,000 career points. He sits 12th on the scoring list of active players which is headed by Adelaide 36ers forward Daniel Johnson with 5,971 points.
Tom Abercrombie (4,212 points) is third on the NBL’s active players scoring list.
Abercrombie snared 2 steals to become just the 4th Breaker to pinch 250 steals.
The Breakers top five “Stealers”:
288 Boucher
278 Jackson
252 Vukona
251 Abercrombie
209 Henare
Lost 92-84 to Perth Wildcats at Spark Arena on Saturday
Rob Loe played his 125th game for the Breakers drawing level with Oscar Forman in 12th spot on the club’s all-time games played list.
Derek Pardon produced his 6th double-double of the season adding 14 rebounds to 13 points.
Upcoming
Cam Gliddon will play his 299th NBL game against the Sydney Kings.
Izayah Le’afa needs 3 points for 600 NBL career points.
Will McDowell-White needs to pinch 1 more possession for 50 steals in Breakers colours.
The Breakers (11-4) are next in action on Thursday when they entertain Sydney Kings (9-3) in a clash between the top two teams on the NBL ladder – tip-off 7.30pm at Spark Arena.
LACEY LOWDOWN 