Report: Ethan Jaiswal
The MK breakers’ senior men’s team continued their undefeated start to the season on Saturday night with an emphatic win over BA London Lions, 104-68. The away team were a late stand-in due to Bury St Edmunds Bulldogs not being able to make the trip West for the originally planned fixture. Nevertheless, the two sides put on an exciting display in front of another sold out crowd at Bletchley Leisure Centre that contained plenty of talking points.
The Breakers came out of the gates strong with front-court duo Michael New Jr and Luke Gregory establishing themselves early on, putting the first 16 points on the board for the home side. The opposition hit a quick succession of three point shots to get them off the mark in what seemed to be shaping up to be a fiery, competitive affair. However, midway through the 1st quarter was when the gears really began to click for the Breakers, seeing the two leading scorers from the night make their mark: Jordan Spencer and Dante Langley; the latter of which concluded the quarter with a pull-up three from a few feet beyond the arc and pushing the lead to 11 for the home side. 26-15.
Emerging guard, William Issekya opened the scoring in the second quarter for the Breakers, scoring on back-to-back posessions. During this quarter, team captain Jordan Spencer (23 points) put on a clinic in playmaking: finding himself setting up his teammates with ease and getting them open shots due to the defensive attention he was drawing. It was in this quarter that academy product Eric Arriaga made his debut for the senior side. Arriaga embraced the pressure and made two free throws to open the scoring on his senior men’s career; a proud moment for the club that was met by a warm, noisy reception from the sold-out crowd. Also making his debut for the Breakers was new-man Scott Graves, who too knocked down a pair of free throws to get his tally for the Milton Keynes side off the mark.
The score was 54-29 going into the half, in favour of the Breakers, a quarter that demonstrated the depth of Coach Beddow’s side, with 11 different players all contributing to the scoreline.
The third quarter was where the game was truly put out of reach for the young away side from East London, who were led valiantly in scoring by the wiley and athletic Jamal Seri (21 points). For the Breakers, Jordan Spencer once again demonstrated his elite quality, making a difficult lay-up through contact to the face which needed treatment, although this was not before converting the and-one and further extending the Breakers lead. On the defensive end, Scott Graves gifted the audience with a monsterous block, a statement-making move that raised the decibel levels of the Bletchley Leisure Centre. Dante Langley (26 points), truly put an exclamation mark on the evening with a flashy one-handed dunk that electrified the crowd, satisfying the appetite that had been created after a few denied attempts earlier in the game from Langley and Buai Luak.
The final quarter of the game saw much of the same, with the Breakers never faltering on their charge to victory. The Breakers senior men’s team are still yet to lose, and are full of momentum following a pre-season victory against the Loughborough Riders II and a hard-fought win versus Division 2 side City of Birmingham Rockets.
The Breakers are on the road next Sunday to take on NBL Division 2 side Encon Derbyshire Arrows in the cup, before returning home on 29th October to take on Anglia Ruskin University, last season’s winner’s of the division. Ticket information will be released shortly on our website at mkbasketball.club and on our social media channels @mkbasketballclub on Instagram and @mkbballclub on twitter.
