Wetzell powers Breakers to first NBL win
Center Yannick Wetzel posted a career-best NBL scoring performance as the New Zealand Breakers registered their first win of the season and ended their Australian drought.
Coming with a 0–6 record in Sunday's game in Brisbane, their worst NBL season start, the Breakers led most of the match and 17 in the third quarter.
Brisbane reduced the deficit to two within the final 25 seconds, but Breakers guard Peyton Siwa won 88–83 with three free throws.
Brisbane were playing for the first time in three weeks in the only game of the round and the Breakers were playing for the first time in a fortnight.
It was the Breakers' first win in their last 11 matches in Australia, leading up to the Round of 16 last season.
"I can't get more excited than a win and 1-6," said Breakers coach Dan Shamir.
"We basically controlled the game most of the time from the beginning and worked hard, got a lot of aggressive rebounds, effort plays."
Kendra Wetzel was the dominant player on the court, scoring 27 points on 60 percent field goal shooting and adding eight boards, four assists, two steals and a block.
"I think he is a very high level player and I think we used him a little better today," Shamir said.
This is the fourth time Wetzel has scored 20 or more this season.
"I got some good looks. The point guards found me in good shape and the ball was falling which was good," Wetzel said.
"But the fact of the matter was that our defense took massive strides and not only that, our leadership.
"My main focus on the court today was trying to talk, bring the boys with me and it was good to repel the monkey."
Will Besson scored 12 points, Shiva returned from a hamstring injury 11, and fellow American guard Jeremiah Martin (10 points, eight assists) made some big plays down the stretch for the winners.
Brisbane imported stars after Lamar Patterson and Robert Franks made minimal impact in the first half.
Patterson finished with a team-high 17 points and Franks, who did not score in the first half, contributed 13 points and nine boards.
Anthony Drimick and Nathan Sobe each added 14 and Jack Salt added 10 points and got plenty of energy off the bench.
Bullets coach James Duncan said, "We looked absolutely flat. We didn't feel like we had the rhythm for the game."
"We had 20 turnovers and it's hard to win any game when you spin the ball more than 20 times.
"We are not making excuses. We prepared our best and we had chances to win the game, but just execution wise we didn't have it."
