Breakers 93
Wildcats 89
The dream is still alive. The Breakers have set up a sudden-death game three with the Wildcats on Wednesday night in Auckland by pulling off a dramatic road victory at Challenge Stadium in Perth last night.
Mika Vukona made a shock return from injury, Kevin Braswell nailed two crucial threes in the final stages and Kirk Penney poured in a season-high 38 points as the Breakers bounced back from a horror game-one loss in determined, brilliant style.
"The boys dug deep," Penney said. "I think we actually saw that mongrel come out in us where we were not just playing on talent, we were playing with everything we have."
They needed to. In 10 previous visits to Perth the Breakers had won just once. Last Thursday night, they were humiliated by 23 points in their own gym.
But last night, they produced an emphatic answer to the questions over their championship credentials.
The best players tend to step up on the biggest stages. No surprise, then, it was Penney - who was held to 14 points in game one - who led the way.
After missing his first four field goal attempts, the star shooter drained six of his next seven to end the half with 23 points and his side leading 49-42.
Penney went cold in the third quarter, which the Wildcats won 23-14, but caught fire again in the last five minutes to help guide the Breakers home.
"I just had to stay aggressive," he said. "It is easy to come on the road and lose your confidence. I missed my first few but I just had to keep believing and keep pushing. The boys kept getting me great looks and everyone just attacked the glass so if we missed them we had everyone trying to get extra possessions."
While it was Penney's scoring and a vastly improved defensive and rebounding effort that put the Breakers in position to win, it was Braswell who got them home.
The American's shooting has been far from reliable this season, but he has a habit of stepping up when it is most required. Twice inside the final two minutes Braswell stepped back and nailed threes over the desperate hands of Damien Martin, the Perth guard rated the league's best defender.
"That's what he does," Penney said. "It was good to see him back up and making those huge shots. When the game was on the line and all tied and momentum could swing either way he stepped up and made some big ones."
Even after Braswell's bombs, the Breakers required some tidy free-throw shooting from Paul Henare and Penney to get home as Perth repeatedly sent them to the line.
A seven-point lead shrank to two before Penney nailed his final two free-throws to close out the game.
Still clearly hobbled by the medial-knee ligament strain he suffered in game one, Vukona somehow pulled in a game-high 10 rebounds in 21.33 of court time. The powerhouse forward was forced back into the fray late on when both Tom Abercrombie and CJ Bruton fouled out with more than five minutes remaining.
What sort of toll his effort took on his damaged knee remains to be seen, but the Breakers at least have a chance to find out.
The second semifinal series will also go to a game three after the Taipans won game two in Cairns yesterday. Townsville's game one win overnight on Friday had helped to inspire the Breakers, Penney said.
"We watched Townsville and Cairns on Friday night play at another level. We realised we were not playing playoff basketball. We were playing regular season basketball. [Last night] we played playoff basketball. It was special to come here and win."
Penney's 38 points - the most by any player this season - were backed by 16 from Braswell and 13 from Gary Wilkinson.
Centre Matthew Knight was Perth's best performer, contributing 17 points and eight rebounds. At times, Knight seemed capable of taking the game away from the Breakers, but ultimately they did just enough to contain him.
"Defensively was where it was at," Penney said. "We know we need to do that, we need to bring it. We did that [last] night and we need to do it again on Wednesday.
"It is going to be a huge game on Wednesday night. Huge."
