The BNZ Breakers, back from their two-game NBA excursion, were defeated 97-88 by Melbourne United in the Victorian capital on Sunday afternoon.
It was an afternoon we got to see two new Breakers in action and also an occasion the Breakers took the court with an all overseas starting five for the first time in the club’s 633 game history.
With Tom Abercrombie relegated to the bench coach Mody Maor wheeled out a first five featuring Australians Will McDowell-White and Mangok Mathiang to accompany the American trio of Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Zylan Cheatham and recent arrival Anthony Lamb.
Former NBA player Lamb, the 148th Breaker, scored 15 points against United while fellow debutant Mantas Rubštavičius (Breaker #149) had 2 points and 2 rebounds in his first outing. 21 year-old Rubštavičius, a Lithuanian national team player, is part of the NBL’s Next Stars programme.
Cheatham scored a monster 30 points while Jackson-Cartwright had 5 steals to accompany 18 points and 5 assists although fouled out with 3:37 to play.
Other numbers of interest:
McDowell-White, with 9 dimes, passed 400 assists for the Breakers – the 8th Breaker to reach this number. Averaging 4.3 assists per game he will likely threaten the 500 mark before the season concludes but has a long way to go to reach Paul Henare’s all-time club record of 901 assists.
It’s early in the season but the hyphenated duo of McDowell-White (6.5apg) and Jackson-Cartwright (6.0apg) are first and third in the NBL in that statistical category with PJC leading the steals category (4 per game) and also currently the second leading scorer tallying 21 points per outing.
Izayah Le’afa scored 7 points to reach 800 points in his 96th NBL game. 425 of those points were scored in his two season with South East Melbourne Phoenix prior to joining the Breakers.
Dane Pineau’s 5 points were his first in Breakers colours and took the Australian forward past 400 NBL career points.
Next up for the Breakers (1-2) is a home encounter with Adelaide 36ers (2-5) at Spark Arena on Thursday October 26.
LACEY LOWDOWN 