BNZ Breakers hope just the start for Kouat

Whether spurred on by receiving his championship ring, sending a message to his old team or feeling comfortable on his old home floor, Kouat Noi produced his best BNZ Breakers performance on Sunday sending a reminder of how tough to stop he can be.

After joining the Kings from the Cairns Taipans back for NBL23, Noi became a key member of two championship teams in Sydney ahead of making a fresh start across the Tasman for NBL27 at the BNZ Breakers.

Noi hadn’t quite found his groove, though, at his new team and across the first 13 games of the season had only managed a total 50 points with just 48 shot attempts, and having made a career out of shooting from the outside or getting the foul line, he'd only taken 15 free throws.

Things didn’t necessarily change for three quarters on Sunday either on his return to Afterpay Arena and after receiving his championship ring from last season from the Kings pre-game.

Noi had just five points on 2/5 shooting to three quarter-time, but then he exploded to put the BNZ Breakers on his back with 19 fourth quarter points including two massive late threes to get the game to overtime.

By the end of two more overtime periods, he finished the game with an equal career-high 32 points on 9/17 field goal shooting along with going 4/9 from the outside and 10/13 at the foul line.

It was a performance highlighting everything he provides a team when on top of his game and BNZ Breakers coach Gordie Herbert hopes it now kickstarts his season from here.

"First of all, with Kouat, he only played four minutes on Friday night and he's gone through some adversities, embraced it and gone forwards," Herbert said.

"So hopefully, this is where he can turn the corner, so to speak, because obviously today was his best game of the year.

"I thought he played really well on the offensive end, and he kept us in the game there, I thought, and gave us a chance to win."

BNZ Breakers captain Reuben Te Rangi has spent plenty of his career going up against Noi and was excited to be able to call him a teammate this season.

He might have taken a while to get going so far at the BNZ Breakers, but Te Rangi always knew what he was capable and he too hopes it's just the start for him now ahead of Wednesday night's clash back at Spark Arena against the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

"Yeah, he's got it in him to play like that and he always has the ability to score the ball, but yeah, how to get it out of him more? I'm not sure," Te Rangi said.

"When he's playing like that, I think we're a tough team because we already have a lot of options, and then with him adding 32 points in a game is unbelievable."

Another player who was out there on Sunday at Afterpay Arena who is familiar with Noi's abilities is his Kings championship teammate Tyler Robertson.

Robertson ended up spending time opposed to him as well and the pair sure enjoyed going at one another, and even though he might have preferred it to come against the Kings, in the big picture he still found himself happy for a good friend to rediscover such impressive form.

"I definitely liked it a lot more when he was on our team catching fire like that, but obviously given we won the game, I was also able to be super happy for him," Robertson said.

"I know that he's been trying to find his feet down in New Zealand and even though I wish the game that he had didn't happen against us, but I was happy for him on a personal level.

"I became really close to him last year and we were both part of that bench group that turned it around for us in that second half of the year, and so I was super happy for him.

"It was great to see him and I was just glad that we ended up getting the win, and we talked a bit of smack to him after too."