Bullets fall to sharpshooting Breakers

After a tough week, an undermanned Brisbane Bullets fell to the New Zealand Breakers 116-79 on Sunday.

The Bullets arrived in Auckland without key big men Aron Baynes and Tyrell Harrison and were also without Kody Stattmann due to injury.

The Breakers came out strong in front of their home crowd leading the Bullets by nine after the first quarter. They continued to pile on the points shooting efficiently from the three point line throughout the first half.

To Brisbane's credit they closed the opening half with 15 of the last 18 points to bring the half-time deficit back to 18.

The Breakers took back control, though, to lead by as much as 39 early in the fourth on the way to winning by 37 to make it four straight at 10-3. Brisbane is now 3-7.

Positive takeaways for the Bullets, was the way they attacked the rim, getting to the foul line 40 times throughout the game. Tanner Krebs top-scored with 19 points with Nathan Sobey adding 14 points and 10 assists, Tyler Johnson 12 points and two blocks, and Harry Froling added 10 points.

Following the game interim Head Coach Sam Mackinnon said, “It’s been a tough week…but you’d hope for a better performance than that.”

“The guys are hurting, they didn’t like the way we played,” Mackinnon added.

He went on to say, “We will turn it around. There will be better effort and better intent about it. We’re a group that care about each other and I have no doubt we’ll turn it around.”

“We’ve got a short turnaround to play Perth on Thursday and then Tassie on Sunday so big week of training for us.”

When asked about his personal performance after scoring 19 points in the game, Tanner Krebs said, “I’m a team guy, I want to win first so I could care less about my performance, but rather our performance.”

“It was a tough week, a lot happened obviously. We can’t deny the fact that was the case, but it shouldn’t affect our heart, how we play the game and our intensity.” Krebs added.

The Bullets return home in Round 9 to host the Perth Wildcats this Thursday 1 December.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 8

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 116 (Brantley 29, Le'afa 21, Brown Jr 17)

BRISBANE BULLETS 79 (Krebs 19, Sobey 14, Johnson 12) 

BOX SCORE