Source: Radio New Zealand
Rob Baker from the Breakers wants to win big with Ignite Cup. AAP / Photosport
Prior to the tip off of the Australian NBL season, the Breakers knew very little about the league’s latest innovation – now it is the club’s only realistic chance of silverware this season.
A new in-season tournament, the Ignite Cup, played mid-week and with competition points for every quarter won has been where the Breakers have found success in a season of struggles.
The Breakers’ first win came in their opening Ignite Cup game in October and in a total of three games played so far on Wednesdays they are undefeated.
The Auckland-based club are the only team to have not lost in this new competition and have won nine of their 12 quarters played to book a spot in next month’s finals on the Gold Coast.
On 21 January, the Breakers play their last Ignite Cup game against South East Melbourne Phoenix before the finals.
A day before the Breakers opened the Ignite Cup on their home court, players and coach Petteri Koponen were indifferent when asked about the competition which has significant prize money.
At that time, four games into the regular season and winless, the Breakers were searching for answers about how to get back on track for their main objective – winning another NBL Championship – rather than offering musings on what the Ignite Cup might mean to them.
Koponen did not plan to treat the Ignite Cup any differently to the rest of the competition.
“We always try to win every quarter anyway so every possession is important every game every quarter so that doesn’t change too much,” he quipped about the Cup’s reward for winning quarters.
Forward Sam Mennenga seemed unsure about how the new competition would work.
“I don’t know much about the Ignite Cup but I do know we have to win this game, so if [Ignite Cup] is extra motivation for the guys then that’s good,” he said hours before scoring 20 points and having six rebounds against the Illawarra Hawks in a 29-point win.
“I’m not too sure about the Ignite Cup I think if we win all those games we get some money and that is always a good thing.”
The Ignite Cup champions take home $300,000, while the runners-up will get $100,000. Sixty percent of the prize money will go directly to players.
Fast forward to now and the way Breakers finish the Ignite Cup might be the high point of the season.
The form in the middle of the week has not translated to the regular season.
The Breakers are at risk of missing the post-season. Sitting one place outside the top six on the regular season points ladder they need to win the majority of their nine remaining games and hope that the Tasmania JackJumpers stumble to have any chance of extending their season.
On Thursday, the reality about where their season was at was setting in. Players were also now taking notice of the Ignite Cup.
Breakers player Max Darling is ready to return from injury. Blake Armstrong/Photosport
American import Rob Baker had one eye on the prize money and wanted “to win it all” while Max Darling said all remaining games had become “must-win”.
For Darling, the trip to Perth to play the Cairns Taipans at HoopsFest on Saturday and then on Melbourne for the Ignite Cup game on Wednesday would mark his first road trip in two months.
Darling had been sidelined after Mennenga’s elbow and his eye made contact on the training court.
“I fractured my orbital so I didn’t have any bone left under my eye and I had surgery and they put a metal plate in there,” Darling said.
Recovery initially involved rest for the 25-year-old Tall Black but a concussion suffered in the collision left his vision “a bit off” so he had “some seeing exercises”.
“Cause the muscle was damaged in my eye I couldn’t get full range of motion with it so it was a lot of these weird little eye movements that I had to do but I think it’s back at 95 percent so I’m good and ready to play.”
Darling will wear a mask to protect his face when he returns to the court which he said was “comfortable enough”.
However, whether the Breakers will be comfortable over the next few months will hinge on what happens on this latest road trip.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
