Munford, Qi Fire as Phoenix Beat Breakers in Bendigo

It's amazing what a dominant big man and point guard performance can do, and that's exactly what South East Melbourne Phoenix got from Zhou Qi and Xavier Munford in Sunday's 99-89 win over New Zealand Breakers.

It's not going to make up for the disappointment the Phoenix will be feeling having now fallen from playoff contention after such high hopes for this season, but with the pressure off, it looked like they got back to enjoying their basketball at Bendigo Basketball Stadium on Sunday.

The Phoenix came into the clash having lost seven of their past eight games including Thursday's Throwdown to Melbourne United while the Breakers are on their own losing run having lost six in-a-row to be anchored to the bottom of the table.

It was always going to be fascinating how both teams came out to perform in Bendigo and it was a fun affair especially in the first half with Ousmane Dieng delivering 17 points to keep the Breakers in touch of the Phoenix.

South East Melbourne just had too much, though, and after going on a run of 13 straight points in the second quarter, they went on a 12-0 run to start the second half on the way to the 10-point win.

Point guard Xavier Munford and centre Zhou Qi had huge performances with the former finishing with 25 points, eight assists, five rebounds and four steals while the latter had 22 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots.

Izayah Le'afa added 18 points and four assists on 4/7 shooting from downtown and Mitch Creek 16 points and eight rebounds.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell was happier with aspects of his team's performance, but not the last quarter.

"There was aspects that I liked and there's certain areas of the game that we've been horrible at for a little while," Mitchell said.

"Go back to the last two games and we've given up 21 points off turnovers and we reduced that a little bit today. 

"We gave 25 points up in our last game off o-boards and our last games so we were giving up 46 points off things that you can control which puts you way back. 

"We were able to rectify those aspects a little bit and guys played some good basketball, and it's good to get a win and we needed it. But we have to close games out a hell of a lot better than that."

After his 17 points in the first half, Ousmane Dieng finished with 22 for the game for New Zealand along with six rebounds and five assists. Tom Abercrombie put up 17 points, Yanni Wetzell 14 and Finn Delany 12 to go with six assists and five rebounds.

Breakers coach Dan Shamir was happy with parts of what his team did again, but when they are conceding so many points it makes everything difficult.

"In the big picture everyone understands our situation and we have a few more games to play, and it's mostly frustrating," Shamir said. 

"In the big picture, we're not stopping so we are being pretty consistent at giving up 25 points a quarter and that's frustrating. We are giving up a lot of cheap things so that's the story of the losses when you are not stopping, then everything becomes obviously harder.

"In the next three games that we have to play, I doubt it that dramatic things will change, however, our players do have character and they come to compete and they all want to play until the last possession. 

"We did have a few good moments of ball movement and good shots that we managed to produce and overall, we had pretty good percentages from the floor when we didn’t turn it over. The story is defence."

Zhou Qi set the tone for the night scoring first for the Phoenix and soon after Xavier Munford spearheaded a run of seven straight points and South East Melbourne was leading 9-3.

Qi was feeling it and scored a couple of more times down low, but the Breakers were warming to the task and it was Ousmane Dieng who hit the floor to lead their charge.

He knocked down a couple of threes for eight points and the Breakers went into quarter-time leading 25-23 as a result.

Tom Abercrombie knocked down a triple to start the second term to stretch the New Zealand lead to five but then South East Melbourne responded firstly through Qi once more as he continued his big afternoon.

The Phoenix rattled off 13 consecutive points to lead by six before New Zealand got a steadier through Dieng who converted a three-point play. Abercrombie nailed his second three and Dieng also connected from downtown again for 17 first half points to keep the Breakers close.

But on the back of a combined 31 points from Qi and Munford in the half, the Phoenix went into the major break leading 52-44 with Izayah Le'afa also hitting a couple of long balls heading into half-time.

If the game was on the line at half-time, it didn’t stay that way for long with South East Melbourne dominating the start of the third period in remarkable fashion.

With Munford, Qi and Mitch Creek all getting going, the Phoenix put up the first 12 points before finally the Breakers scored on a Yanni Wetzell putback almost four minutes into the half.

The Phoenix weren’t done yet and a rim rattling putback dunk from Brandon Ashley kept the energy high and by three quarter-time they led 77-54.

The Phoenix cruised to the 10-point win in the finish even though the Breakers did well in the fourth term putting up 35 points to at least finish on a high with the best final quarter of any team this season.

The Breakers will remain in Bendigo to host the Syndney Kings now on Tuesday night while the Phoenix are next in action next Sunday at home to the Tasmania JackJumpers.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 19

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 89 (Dieng 22, Abercrombie 17, Wetzell 14)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 99 (Munford 25, Qi 22, Le'afa 18) 

BOX SCORE