Bullets fight back late against Breakers

After winning the Loggins-Bruton Cup at the NBL Blitz, the Brisbane Bullets had a tough first 34 minutes to open of the NBL25 season at HoopsFest in Perth. They almost snatched a win with a big finish before the New Zealand Breakers held on to win 91-87.

It turned out to be a close-run race for the Bullets and Breakers in their season opener, even with the Breakers leading by as much as 26 points with 23 minutes still to play, the game came down to the wire.

The last six minutes saw a resurgence from Brisbane, igniting an 18-2 point run. In the final moments, they closed the gap to just two points, with Keandre Cook hitting three massive triples in that stretch.

While the Breakers still held on to win by four points, the Bullets had something to take out of it with a strong finish and Cook ended up with 25 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals on 5/9 three-point shooting.

Casey Prather also finished with 11 points, Tyrell Harrison nine points, five rebounds and two steals, Deng Adel eight points and three boards, and captain Mitch Norton seven points.

Sam McDaniel was back in the line-up for Brisbane and had six points and four rebounds in 14 minutes with Rocco Zikarsky contributing four points and three boards, Isaac White four points, and James Batemon three points, four assists, two rebounds and two steals.

Bullets coach Justin Schueller was definitive in his comments following the game.

"We weren’t at the level for the entire first half and I'm super disappointed because we went through a year of this last year where we left things too late,” he said.

"It was a commendable effort by us to put some fight in and make a game of it, but that's not who we want to be and not the standard we expect."

It was a perfect start for the Bullets with Keandre Cook knocking down a three ball, and when Tohi Smith-Milner made another midway through the first term, they were up 11-9.

Brisbane was still leading by two, heading towards quarter-time after baskets to Casey Prather and Sam McDaniel, but the Breakers then finished off with nine of the last 11 points to be leading 24-19 by quarter-time.

New Zealand started the second half with a 13-2 run before Brisbane did get five quick points from Cook, but the Breakers were feeling good and shot 64 per cent for the first half to be leading the Bullets 51-34 at the main break.

New Zealand were then able to go on a 12-0 scoring run in the third quarter to push the lead out to 26 points, but Brisbane did respond with nine straight points including five of them to captain Mitch Norton to be within 20 at three quarter-time.

The margin was still 23 with six minutes to play, but impressively Brisbane fought back to score eight consecutive points including a triple from Prather.

It was then another run of 10 straight points for Brisbane with Cook hitting eight of those and suddenly it was just a seven-point game and things were getting interesting.

Then with 22 seconds to go, Deng Adel made a three and it was back to five before Brisbane forced the back court turnover, Prather scored and the margin was three.

It was then two when Cook hit his fifth triple with nine seconds to go, but the Breakers did just enough at the foul line to seal it.

The Bullets remain on the road to start NBL25 by taking on the Illawarra Hawks next Friday night before the home opener at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Saturday October 5 against the Sydney Kings.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

BRISBANE BULLETS 87 (Cook 25, Prather 11, Harrison 9)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 91 (Mennenga 22, Jackson-Cartwright 20, King 12)

BOX SCORE