Invercargill hosted its first Australian National Basketball League game on Friday night when the Breakers took on Melbourne United in a mouthwatering showdown at ILT Stadium Southland.It was the first of four Breakers home games it would play outside Auckland this season.
Invercargill had previously staged Breakers preseason fixtures, but Stadium boss Nigel Skelt had been working with the Breakers in recent years to try to lure a full-blown competition game to the deep South.
With funding from the Invercargill Licensing Trust and Invercargill City Council, as well as a guaranteed crowd figure of at least 2000 people, the two organisations struck a deal.
The official crowd figure for Friday night was 2600.
Outside the 108-101 loss, Invercargill ticked all the boxes on Friday night, the Breakers boss said.
"This venue is beautiful. What is there not to like about it?" Boucher said.
"The crowd is on top of you here, they are vocal, and they came out and did everything they could to spur the boys on. The court looked beautiful.
"I’m just really happy with everything, right from the community visits right to the game was seamless.
"I just want to say a massive thanks to ILT Stadium, they put on a great event. They were a breeze to deal with, we enjoyed every moment of us being down here."
The plan now was for the Breakers to return next season.
"We would love to be back next year. We’ll sit down with Nigel and talk about what that means for ILT Stadium and the Breakers, hopefully, it will come to fruition and we can treat these fans to a win," Boucher said.
While, as an event, Friday was regarded a success, former Breakers coach Paul Henare has questioned if taking games throughout New Zealand was the right move with performance in mind.
Henare was delighted to be back as an assistant coach with Melbourne United, at a venue where he had previously coached a lot with the Southland Sharks.
He told The Melbourne Age that he remembered when he was a player in 2003 the Breakers took home games outside Auckland and he felt it backfired.
"From a Breakers point of view, we went through that in 2003, our first year in the competition, we played games in Christchurch, Hamilton — we floated around," Henare said.
"From my personal point of view, I didn’t really like it purely because it felt like just another road game where we had to travel. You lose that little edge in terms of a home advantage."
Boucher felt the fixture in Invercargill was very much a home game.
"The crowd was really engaged, and I really thought they did what they could to get us across the line.
"Part of taking these games around the country is, I guess, enlarging our footprint around New Zealand. We are the New Zealand Breakers and we want to showcase our talents to all of New Zealand. Coming right the way to the bottom of the South Island is a good way to do that.
"It is a strong basketball community down here [in Southland] and they appreciate good basketball."
• Breakers coach Kevin Braswell has lost patience with NBL referees, lashing out at the lop-sided foul count in every game involving his team this season.
Weeks of frustration finally told on the rookie coach after the Breakers lost 108-101 to Melbourne United in Invercargill on Friday, the fourth loss in eight games for the Kiwi club.
While he would not begrudge the defending champions their win, Braswell could not reconcile the foul count going heavily against his team for the eighth successive game.
Melbourne went to the stripe 24 times to the Breakers’ 14, nearly mirroring the season average of 21-13.
The discrepancy hit a nadir in Perth two weeks ago when the Wildcats earned 21 free throws and the Breakers just three.
- Logan Savory
