BNZ Breakers get better despite defeat

Gordie Herbert called out the lack of effort of the BNZ Breakers in the last game he coached, but heralded their fight, saying they took a step forward on Friday despite a fifth straight defeat and being without two guns by the second half.

After the BNZ Breakers lost in their home return last Friday night for the only time in October, Herbert couldn’t hold back with what he saw in the first half from his team ahead of an eventual seven-point loss to the Adelaide 36ers.

He said he didn’t want to have to coach effort, that should be a non-negotiable, and he couldn’t fault what his group gave in Launceston on Friday night especially considering they were without import pair Parker Jackson-Cartwright and Charles Bediako in the second half.

It still wasn’t perfect and the BNZ Breakers had to fight back from an 11-point hole early in the second quarter against the Tasmania JackJumpers giving up the first seven points of the first half

But they went into half-time on an 11-0 run and made it a two-point game late to have a chance to either send it to overtime or win it on the buzzer.

While they did fall to a fifth straight defeat, Herbert saw it as a step forward.

"We lost the game, but to a certain extent I thought we got better if that's possible," Herbert said.

"To a certain extent we're in a result-oriented business and we get judged by results, but I thought our habits were better and our effort was really good.

"We won the rebounding battles, we just didn't get to the foul line enough, and I thought our effort was outstanding.

"We never gave up, we were down most of the game and we came back multiple times. We got hurt on different things in the post on our switches but we fixed it better in the fourth quarter and gave ourselves a chance."

It wasn’t lost on Herbert afterwards that his team did a lot right that was in their control.

They won the rebound count 37-30, they pulled down 13 offensive rebounds for 23 second chance points, and lost two important defensive pieces late with Nelson Weidemann and Reuben Te Rangi fouling out.

In the end, while Herbert didn’t want to make any excuses, the JackJumpers going to the foul line 31 times to just 14 for the BNZ Breakers, and a 27-15 foul count contributed to the final result.

"I just saw the fouls were 15 to 27, jeepers, 31 free throws to 14," Herbert said.

"I'm just looking at it. I mean, I just looked at it now and I'm not going to comment on the refereeing."

The fact that the BNZ Breakers continued to fight back especially going into half-time to tie scores up and then through the fourth quarter where they held the JackJumpers to just 15 points on 2/11 field goal shooting was impressive.

There were players who stepped up too. Carlin Davison again had a big role to play with Jackson-Cartwright only playing 11 minutes and none in the second half, and had another nine assists with six points, five rebounds and two steals.

Kouat Noi likely had his most significant impact for the season with nine points and three rebounds while Te Rangi played an important 20 minutes, and so did Weidemann with his defensive role largely on Taran Armstrong and/or Dakota Mathias through his 24 minutes.

Considering the BNZ Breakers didn’t have any of the imports available for most of the night they hoped to start the season with, and were playing the league-leaders on the road, and had a chance to win at the buzzer, Herbert couldn’t fault the effort.

"I thought the effort was outstanding, and sure we made some mistakes, but our effort was really good," Herbert said.

"When you're aggressive with great effort, you can fight through different things and I thought our effort was really good.

"We just had some different lapses at the beginning of the third quarter and beginning of the game, we've got to we got to start on time.

"We had great momentum after finishing the second quarter really well, we just did not start the third quarter well, and we were back on our heels.

"We lost our aggressiveness for a little bit and we were reacting to them, and we got behind the eight ball right away down by seven, down by nine again."

Bediako has found his best form of the season over the last three games with him averaging 13.3 points and 9.0 rebounds so it was a big loss to the BNZ Breakers when he was out for the game after falling hard under the basket inside the first five minutes.

That meant others had to step up and after eight points in Melbourne back on Monday night, Anzac Rissetto stepped up once more playing 17 minutes for six points and five rebounds including three at the offensive end.

Combined with another monster game from Sam Mennenga with 29 points, 17 rebounds, two assists and two blocks on 13/19 shooting, and the front court held up well for Herbert.

"Yeah, I thought Anzac really did a great job coming off the bench, he gave us some physicality and some effort, and he's been good in practice the last week, 10 days, and he brought that to the game floor," Herbert said.

"He's (Mennenga) playing really well on the offensive end and he's a tough matchup. He's very physical and when we get him the ball down low, he's really almost unstoppable.

"He's moving the ball and he's playing at a very high level."

The BNZ Breakers now have a full week before playing again when they return to Spark Arena next Friday night to play the Brisbane Bullets, and Herbert knows how important getting to work on the practice floor is going to be.

"I think it's really important that we get a little bit more practice time and I thought our effort was really good today, but obviously we still have a lot of things to work on basketball-wise," Herbert said.

"It's important to get back home and get some practice, and just be at home a little bit too. The schedule's been quite tough, we've had nine of the 12 games on the road, and it is what it is.

"But it will be good to be back and have some practice times for sure."