KEY POINTS:
Having successfully crossed one dangerous reef, New Zealand Breakers continue their travels through uncharted waters in the Australian National Basketball League with another playoff match against Brisbane Bullets tomorrow night.
The winners of the match in Brisbane advance to a three-game home and away semifinal series against the Melbourne Tigers next week.
With the Breakers not having made the post-season competition before, let alone crossed the first hurdle, just how they will back up tomorrow will pose the big unknown for the Bullets.
"(The question is) now, are we happy to have won just one game in the playoffs? Or do we want to take this next opportunity," coach Andrej Lemanis said today.
"That's certainly the challenge, isn't it?
"Having the veterans that we have in this group able to step up and say how rare it is to have these sorts of opportunities makes an impact on our team," he told Radio Sport.
Lemanis did not think low energy levels after a big match and having to travel would be a factor for his side.
"Come playoff time, the fatigue factor's not as great. The adrenaline gets everyone going - just being in the playoffs gets everyone up for the game."
With Kirk Penney's sights dialled in last night, the Breakers shocked Cairns 100-78 after trailing 45-48 at halftime.
Tall Black Penney topscored with 30 points while Tony Ronaldson bravely hobbled through on a strained achilles tendon to play a key role in their maiden ANBL playoff appearance.
"He's a warrior, you saw him (Ronaldson) limping the whole time. He did a great job but everyone stepped up, especially at the defensive end," Penney said.
The Cairns Convention Centre crowd of 5000-plus were hushed as the Breakers stormed home with a 55-30 second half to send the heavily favoured Taipans packing.
"I was having a good time. This is why we do it, to be involved in playoff basketball," Lemanis said today.
"I thought we played well, the defence held up well in that second half to keep them to 22 per cent shooting.
"It's something we've spoken about all year and certainly this last month or so we've become quite good at our defence.
"It's pleasing for it to come to fruition in a game like that," said the coach, adding he thought Ronaldson would come right for the Brisbane match.
"There's no doubt his Achilles is sore but he can play on it.
"When we're actually playing and we need him, he manages to find a way."
Despite being hardly able to lift his feet, the 2.03m Ronaldson last night offered the composure the Breakers needed most as they looked flat at halftime.
The former Australian international, 35, was playing a record 80th ANBL playoff match and his nine points, six rebounds and seven assists were the backbone of the win.
Veteran Derrick Alston had a big all-round game with 19 points and 12 rebounds, and fellow import Orien Greene snared 17 points and four steals.
Penney felt they could ride the confidence wave through to Brisbane.
"The energy came back this week and we really felt it lift, the bench lifted, the fans that we had here got us going," Penney said.
"... (Brisbane) played really tough and last time we were there it wasn't pretty. We're looking forward to getting some recovery in, it's a game in a couple of days and I'm sure they'll be fresh."
The Breakers lost by 32 points in a match coloured by controversy the last time they played the Bullets.
Brisbane were fired up by a promotional campaign for the match they felt had showed lack of respect for one of their New Zealanders, Craig Bradshaw.
Bradshaw, who along with compatriot Dillon Boucher is a key player off the bench, said the taunting promotional campaign had disgusted him and the team had replied on the court.
The Bullets are powered by Erie Ebi, who is in the running for the league's most valuable player and their stocks are bolstered by veteran Australian international guard, C J Brunton.
- NZPA
