Basketball: Cedric Jackson to reach another milestone

Cedric Jackson in action against the Townsville Crocodiles. Photo / Getty

Few Breakers players have enjoyed as much success as Cedric Jackson and tomorrow night he will add another milestone to his growing list.

The match-up against the renamed Illawarra Hawks will be Jackson's 100th for the Breakers.

In the previous 99, the 29-year-old point guard has won three championships in three seasons, achieved the highest win ratio of any Breakers player (76 out of 99 for 76.8 per cent), been league MVP, notched four triple doubles (no other Breaker has registered one) and he's second on the all-time list for assists (645 at 6.5 per game) and steals (238 at 2.4 a game).

He will become the 12 player to make 100 appearances for the club, behind the likes of Aaron Olson, Paul Henare, Dillon Boucher, Mika Vukona and CJ Bruton.

"I feel like I have accomplished great things with this club and been able to perform at a high level across this number of games and am honoured to join the others who have achieved something similar with the Breakers, they are some great names and great players," he said. "To be mentioned alongside them is humbling."

Another in the 100 club is former league MVP Kirk Penney who recently signed with Illawarra. Penney played 110 games across two stints with the Breakers, helping them to their first title in 2011, but has more recently been playing in Turkey and Spain.

It will add another layer to the match, and he has been joined at Illawarra by former Perth guard Kevin Lisch and spicy Perth coach Rob Beveridge. The Hawks lost their first two games on the road and will hope to turn things around at home.

"Going up against Kirk, I know he will be excited about this match and we will be, too," assistant coach Paul Henare told Radio Sport. "He's a hell of a player and tough competitor.

"We can be nice and rosy on the outside but as soon as we get on court the battle lines are drawn and we will go after it like we would any other player."

The Breakers would like to do it with captain Mika Vukona but the skipper is still troubled by the hamstring strain that saw him sit out Sunday's 89-81 defeat of the Townsville Crocodiles.

Henare said they would adopt a cautious approach with one of their key players but hoped Vukona might play at least one of their two games on the road - they take on the Wildcats in Perth on Friday.

"It's one of those ones we will keep evaluating day by day," Henare said. "We are not going to rush it. Knowing Mika and how competitive he is, he doesn't enjoy not being part of it but we have to look more long term.

"We are almost protecting him from himself. There's no question he would play if we were going into a grand final but we are two games into a 28-game season and it's more precautionary."

There was better news around Tom Abercrombie and Alex Pledger, who both came through their comeback games on Sunday with no major issues.