Mennenga Career Night Not Quite Enough In Gallant Loss In Perth

The BNZ Breakers fought gallantly but in the end were undoneby a superb Wildcats shooting performance and fourth quarter surge as they weredefeated for the second time this season by Perth, going down 84-100.

With a game plan built around going inside the paint beforethey explored the perimeter, Sam Mennenga was outstanding with a career high 40points, 18 rebounds and 5 assists as he did all he could to keep theundermanned Breakers in touch with one of the league’s hottest teams playingtheir fifth consecutive home game to start their NBL27 campaign.

Carlin Davison showed his versatility, playing with hugecommitment at both ends of the floor and dishing out a career high 11 assistsas he took on much of the ball handling duties in the absence of the injuredParker Jackson-Cartwright.

Mojave King made 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting, DJVasiljevic had 10 points, Reuben Te Rangi provided 9 points and 7 rebounds fromthe bench, and Charles Bediako 7 points.

The hustle was there from a brave Breakers outfit,outrebounding Perth 47-36 and fighting hard at the defensive end, but accuracylet them down when shooting from beyond the arc, shooting the three at 32%.

The Wildcats got hot from deep, especially in the final quarter when a run ofthree triples midway through the final term blew out the scoreline and had thehome crowd on their feet. They finished up shooting the three at 44%, many oftheir makes at crucial moments.

Head Coach Gordie Herbert praised the effort from his side.

“Congratulations to Perth, I thought our players foughtwell, we wanted to go inside as much as possible.  For 30 minutes we werein the game. Our players played hard, they gave everything they had.  Wewanted to establish an inside game; I thought Sam did a really good job ofthat.  He had a huge game for us and kept us in the game most of thegame.”

Sam Mennenga reflected on a huge personal effort but was inno mood to look for excuses with his side missing Parker Jackson-Cartwright,Josiah Jordan James, and Preston Le Gassick.

“You can’t let it define you, if you’re going to play thevictim going into the game you have already lost the game.  Next manmentality is not having a choice, you can’t play victim, guys have to stepup.  Our effort was there for 30 minutes or so, but you need 40 minutes ofgood basketball to win games.

“Credit our guys though, they hung tough, played hard andgave it everything.  We had guys playing in roles they are not used toplaying. Rather than looking at who we don’t have or who we might have on theway, credit this group, we have something building here.”

The contest was in the balance for long periods, with theBreakers maintaining a slim lead on the back of Mennenga’s hot start to thegame as the Breakers big man poured in 17 points and 7 rebounds in the openingquarter for a 22-21 lead.

Ultimately, it was the final quarter that undid the heroiceffort of the visitors though, Perth draining triple after triple in a 30-18ten-minute period that ultimately saw a scoreline not reflect how tight andtough a game this was.

The Breakers drop to 3 wins and 3 losses in a fiercelycompetitive NBL27, having played 4 games on the road and now move on toCanberra to play unbeaten Sydney in an IGNITE Cup game on Wednesday night andround out their latest road trip with a visit to another hot side in Tasmaniaon Sunday 18^th.

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