Basketball: High-flying Breakers come down to earth

The Breakers' top scorer, Kevin Braswell, pushes past Mat Campbell, of the Hawks. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Kirk Penney's return to the Breakers may not be so seamless after all.

Boosted by the presence of one of the league's premier scorers, the Breakers responded by notching the lowest score in club history as they were rocked at home by the Hawks in a top-of-the-table clash that was more street fight than sweet science.

Penney's personal line wasn't great - 11 points on 4/16 shooting - but, after a preparation that involved pre-season training with another club and a follow-up trip to Italy for a wedding, that was hardly a surprise.

Of more concern would be the total lack of rhythm displayed by the team as a whole at the offensive end.

Having picked up a good chunk of Penney's minutes, Tom Abercrombie has been an offensive spark plug this season. Last night he looked like a lost soul, failing to notch a point until the final minute of the third quarter.

Abercrombie wasn't alone in his struggles. The Breakers shot just 33 per cent from the field on 21/65 shooting. The result was a match haul of just 57 points - nine fewer than the club's previous low score of 64 set last season against Cairns.

"Keeping them to 73, normally Breaker basketball beats that score," Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis said.

Not last night. Not even close.

Lemanis felt his side was tired after last week's road trip to Adelaide and lacked an edge. But he discounted the idea Penney's return had been problematic.

"He came in for the Gold Coast and that worked fine for us on the road. I don't think you can blame that."

Veteran Hawks coach Gordie McLeod disagreed. "It's very disruptive when you have someone come in and out," he said.

"Obviously with someone with Kirk's talent you want to utilise what he does, but it also changes your team dynamic.

"There's no question they have all the pieces to be a very good team. They're 5-2 now but a lot of that was when Kirk was away. Bringing Kirk in now, they just have to find how they play."

At 5-2 the result is hardly a calamity. But coming on the back of a 40-point hammering in Perth, it's enough to suggest a Breakers that had cruised through the opening weeks of the season without Penney have hit a fairly significant pothole on his return.

The horribly out-of-sorts Breakers managed just 15 points in the first quarter but that was positively prolific in comparison to the opening five minutes of the next quarter, when an early Alex Pledger dunk was all they had to show for their efforts. In the end they cobbled together 12 scratchy points for a halftime total of 27.

That they were still in the game was down to a tenacious defensive effort that limited the Hawks to just 35.

Penney topped the Breakers for the half with seven, which included the team's only three with 2.52 remaining.

Trailing by just eight at the break, the Breakers were far from out of it. But they desperately needed a spark and none was forthcoming. Instead, the big blow came from former Breaker Oscar Forman, who nailed a wide-open three to extend the Hawks' lead to a game-high 11 points.

Forman enjoyed getting one over his former club.

He said: "I'm not going to lie it feels great."