Bullets back it up with win over Breakers

The New Zealand Breakers returned to the NBL on Thursday night at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre but the Brisbane Bullets made it consecutive wins with the 84-73 victory.

The Breakers opened their season with two wins against the Bullets and South East Melbourne Phoenix before embarking on a three-game NBLxNBA tour of the United States to play against the Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers and Oklahoma City Thunder.

They had missed the last two rounds of the NBL season but were in Brisbane looking to remain the last remaining unbeaten team in the competition.

Brisbane were fresh off their first win of the season on Saturday night against the Phoenix and were on top virtually the whole way including opening up a double-figure advantage to start the second half.

The Breakers still stayed in touch and Parker Jackson-Cartwright was at the forefront of that with another 20 points, seven rebounds and six assists to strengthen his early MVP claims.

However, the Bullets continued to answer every challenge including an early three-pointer in the fourth quarter from Josh Bannan (15 points, nine rebounds, three assists) who had missed 10 of his 12 shots up to that point.

There was still another twist with the Breakers grabbing the lead with Mojave King (11 points, four rebounds, two blocks) scoring nine quick points for New Zealand and Matt Mooney (13 points, 6/17 shooting) hitting a three, but again Brisbane answered.

The home team scored the next eight points on the way to the 11-point win with James Batemon continuing his standout form since moving to the bench with 21 points on 5/8 three-point shooting.

Casey Prather also had 13 points and five rebounds, and Tyrell Harrison 13 points and seven boards.

Bullets coach Justin Schueller was especially pleased with the defensive effort from his team.

"Any time in our league when teams aren’t getting to 80 on the scoreboard, you have to be happy with the defensive effort," he said.

"They made some tough threes and we had a couple of breakdowns, but I thought for the majority of time we put them into the shots we wanted them to take which is really pleasing after another good week at practice in preparation."

The Breakers fought hard and they did have 16 offensive rebounds for 17 second chance points with Sam Mennenga again providing plenty down low for 15 points and five boards.

Breakers coach Petteri Koponen wasn’t sure what to expect from his team, but ultimately couldn’t fault their effort overall.

"This is the first time in a few weeks I really didn’t know what to expect with us going into the game because we didn’t have too much time to practice the last two weeks," he said.

"I felt like we still had a chance to win this game and we didn’t start very well, and overall didn’t play well, but we had quality shots and had our moments.

"But congrats to Brisbane, they were better today and deserved to win."

Both teams traded threes from Casey Prather and Jonah Bolden to start the game before five straight points for the Bullets which was answered to with six in-a-row from the Breakers.

In the end, Brisbane scored the last four points of the opening period to lead by that margin at quarter-time before the home team stretched their advantage out to seven midway through the second frame following a three from Keandre Cook.

The Breakers immediately responded with the next seven points including three balls to Parker Jackson-Cartwright and Bolden to tie scores up, but the Bullets ended the half on a 10-4 run to be leading 39-33 at the break.

That included two more threes to James Batemon to give him 11 points for the half to lead the home team with Jackson-Cartwright leading the game with 12 for the Breakers.

The Bullets opened up the second half by pushing their lead out to double-figures for the first time in the game before still being on top 58-50 by three quarter-time.

New Zealand got right back into it to start the fourth with a couple of threes and an and-one play from Mojave King. They even hit the front thanks to Parker Jackson-Cartwright, but Brisbane answered with the next eight points, and ended up winning by 11.

The gruelling schedule continues for the Breakers who now head home to Auckland on Friday and get ready to host the Perth Wildcats straight up on Saturday.

The Bullets continue their run of just one game per week to start the season and don't play again until hosting the Tasmania JackJumpers next Saturday night.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

BRISBANE BULLETS 84 (Batemon 21, Bannan 15, Prather 13, Harrison 13)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 73 (Jackson-Cartwright 20, Mennenga 15, Mooney 13)

BOX SCORE