Basketball: Storey fires and title hopes improve

Rick Rickert (left) of the Breakers and Russell Hinder of the Crocodiles. Photo / Getty Images

It looks like the pieces of the Breakers jigsaw might finally be meshing together.

They went into the NBL season as title favourites but after just five games that billing was looking shaky. The problems were mounting. Reigning MVP Kirk Penney was on the injured list; the offence was misfiring; import Awvee Storey was struggling to settle in; and the team couldn't win on the road.

But Thursday night's victory over the Townsville Crocodiles, in what was the club's 100th home game in the league, seems to have put most of those issues to bed.

Storey had a break-out night, the offence poured in 35 points in the opening quarter, and Penney should be back next week for what is the second in a run of three consecutive home games.

As for winning on the road, well, as coach Andrej Lemanis pointed out, no one is doing much of that right now. Of the 21 games played so far, just four have been won by the away team. The Breakers, who levelled their record at 3-3 on Thursday night, are just one of five clubs yet to post a W on their travels.

"It is a tough league," Lemanis said. "You've got to be able to bring it, to execute on the road. It can come down to a few key plays and right now we haven't been able to get it done.

"We are still finding ourselves but [Thursday night] was a step in the right direction as far as finding how we need to play to consistently be good."

Storey took the biggest step.

The American had managed just two points in each of his last two games and just 29 in total from his first five games.

The club had stood staunchly by him but, in a league where under-performing imports are routinely dispensed with, how long that support could have continued is questionable.

Just ask Michael Joiner, the former Canterbury Ram who was bombed out of Gold Coast after just two games.

Storey's relegation to the bench on Thursday suggested patience might have been running out, but neither the player nor his coach saw it that way.

"His reaction to not starting was unbelievably great," Lemanis said.

"At practice he came out and just busted his arse. One of the things that Awvee has done is work bloody hard. It is never a surprise when somebody who puts in the work gets the reward for it."

Storey appears to be a reserved, undemonstrative type, a far cry from some of his countrymen - Corey Homicide Williams for instance - who have graced the league. Thursday night's heroics, when he rounded out a fine display with a vital block on Williams and a three-point dagger to halt a dangerous Crocs fourth-quarter rally, were pleasing, but he certainly wasn't getting carried away.

"I always had the confidence that it would eventually come and it came at the right time," he said.

"The guys never stopped believing in my abilities, what I showed in practice, it was basically a matter of just coming out and doing it.

"But you've got to stay even keel with a game like this. Basketball is so up and down. If you play enough basketball, you know you can't get too over-excited, you can't. I've learned that. I'm ready to go back and practise and get it done again."

Being dropped to the bench was the right move for both him and the team, Storey said.

"I was not getting it done. I was struggling offensively and getting in foul trouble and frustrating myself. I took the onus on myself to say 'let it go, let that go, you can't be responsible for stuff that happened in the past'."

He may have found his feet but Storey doesn't appear to be quite the player the Breakers signalled they were getting.

Originally billed as an aggressive power forward, he appears more comfortable in a combo guard/forward role, with his five three-pointers on Thursday night proving just what a perimeter shooting threat he can be.

With Penney poised to return and three of their next four games at home, the Breakers appear nicely poised to launch a mid-season run up the ladder. And predictions of a title are looking more confident.