Basketball: The mission: stop Penney

Tom Abercrombie will seek to shut down Kirk Penney. Photo / Getty Images

The fast rising Breakers are wary of Kirk Penney’s threat.

For all the understandable attention around Kirk Penney's presence, a quick glance at the competition scoring charts reveals the exact magnitude of the threat Illawarra will pose today against the Breakers.

The battle at Vector Arena between sharp-shooters Corey Webster (first with 22.6 points per game) and Penney (third, 19.6) will certainly be intriguing. But so, too, will be the Breakers' ability to handle the offence their opponents provide in both the back-court through Kevin Lisch (fourth, on 18.8) and front-line through AJ Ogilvy (fifth, 18.8).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given they possess three of the league's top five scorers, the Hawks also lead the team ranking. But the Breakers will be confident of coping well with the multi-faceted opponents because the defending champions boast the best defence in the competition.

Lisch will certainly leave Webster and Cedric Jackson with their hands full on the defensive end, while Ogilvy will pose a tough test for the Breakers bigs. Luckily for coach Dean Vickerman, that quartet is nearing full-strength after each endured a disrupted opening half of the campaign.

With Tai Wesley having recovered from illness, Mika Vukona and Alex Pledger both finding full fitness and Charles Jackson shaking off foul problems, the Breakers can now protect their own interior and provide an offensive edge in the paint.

And given all the availability issues that the Breakers (10-5) have faced, Tom Abercrombie believed his side were well-positioned in second, behind Perth (13-6) but ahead of a fading Melbourne (11-6) and today's opponents (9-7).

"Considering the way we started, with guys missing and bringing guys back into the fold, we've done a good job," Abercrombie said. "And I think we're getting better and better. We had a slow start to the year but, in this last little period, we've really picked things up and started to play pretty good basketball.

"Last week was our first game with our whole squad back together so I think there's still some improvement left to go, which is exciting for the second part of the year."

Abercrombie was equally excited by the prospect of again clashing with Penney, although that feeling must be somewhat tempered by the memories of the 35-year-old grabbing 36 points when the sides met in round two.

Having played together at both the Breakers and Tall Blacks, Abercrombie was well aware of Penney's numerous strengths and the inadequate job he and his team-mates did to negate them in October.

"He's playing really well at the moment and we have to be a lot better than we were last time against these guys," Abercrombie said. "He puts the ball on the floor really well, but his strength is obviously using screens and being in motion a lot and always being a threat to score. So we have to make sure there's no separation and we're locked in on him the whole time."

In Abercrombie's view, Penney helps make the Hawks one of the form teams of the competition. And, with a busy festive period approaching, he knew victory today was imperative to his side's prospects.

"This next little period is really going to be crucial for every team," he said. "We are happy with where we are but we're not con-tent. We want that top spot and we have got to keep battling to get there."