Bullets salute at home over Breakers

James Batemon hit another five three-pointers, Casey Prather celebrated his 100th NBL game with a win and the Brisbane Bullets rewarded the home fans at Brisbane Entertainment Centre with the 84-73 victory.

The Bullets were back home on Thursday night on the back of the first win of the season on Saturday in Melbourne against the South East Melbourne Phoenix, and looking to back it up to reward the Brisbane faithful.

While the Bullets did lead for most of the contest, the Breakers kept in touch in their first NBL game in almost three weeks having just been to the United States for an NBLxNBA tour.

The Breakers even grabbed the lead briefly early in the fourth quarter, but the Bullets responded strongly and ended up scoring the 11-point victory to improve to a 2-3 record on the season.

On the back of his breakout performance against the Phoenix, James Batemon was again outstanding in the win for the Bullets shooting 5/8 from three-point range for 21 points with the team outscoring the Breakers by 22 points with him on the floor.

Josh Bannan shook off a tough shooting night to persevere and have a big say in the win with 15 points, nine rebounds and three assists with Tyrell Harrison contributing 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals, and Casey Prather 13 points and five boards in his 100th NBL appearance.

Keandre Cook also had nine points and seven rebounds for Brisbane, Isaac White six points and three assists, Tohi Smith-Milner three points and a steal, Mitch Norton two points and three assists, and Jarred Bairstow two points.

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 Bullets made the perfect start on their home floor with a three ball from Casey Prather and then when he also scored again and Tyrell Harrison completed a three-point play, the home team was up 8-3.

Tohi Smith-Milner knocked down a three himself to restore Brisbane to the lead and then the last four points of the first quarter to James Batemon and Isaac White saw the Bullets leading 17-13 by the end of one.

The Bullets then started the second quarter strongly to grow that lead out to seven points with Keandre Cook knocking down a three-pointer before the Breakers responded with the next seven points.

Brisbane hit back to close the half with a run of 10-4 which included two more three-pointers to Batemon to give the Bullets the 39-33 half-time advantage.

That gave Batemon 11 points at the half-time break with the Bullets making 6/12 from three-point land as a team but giving up nine offensive rebounds was keeping the Breakers close.

The Bullets opened the second half scoring the first four points to open up a double-figure lead, but the Breakers weren’t going away even though Brisbane were still on top 58-50 by three quarter-time.

A Bannan three kept the Bullets up eight early in the fourth, but then the Breakers got going with an 11-2 run to grab the lead and the home needed to respond.

That's exactly what Brisbane did with the next points and in the end another three from Batemon, and then clutch free throws from Mitch Norton, Bannan and Cook sealed the eventual 11-point win.

The Bullets now have nine days until playing again when they remain at home at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre next Saturday against the Tasmania JackJumpers.

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