This past weekend saw the start of the British Championship Basketball season, with MK Breakers Men opening their 2026/27 campaign with a tough away encounter with Hemel Storm on Saturday evening.
Having met in a closely fought Trophy clash just a week earlier on the same floor, it was clear that this was going to be a hotly contested game that neither team wanted to lose.
Breakers would jump out to an early 9-0 lead, knocking down shots at one end whilst the home side repeatedly came up empty at the other. Winning the opening quarter 21-10, the visitors continued to thrive and extended that lead to 11 by half time, hitting an incredible 72% of their shots to that point.
But Hemel’s quality would see them inevitably fight their way back, with Sam Newman and Jared Small leading the way as they repeatedly knocked down big shots to claim the lead for the first time late in the third quarter.
The fourth would see the lead see-saw back and forth, Sam Grant netting a crucial bucket from a Jordan Spencer assist to force it into OverTime. Breakers would have a chance to claim victory during that period, but costly turnovers would prevent them from doing so, and that continued into the second OverTime.
It would be that failure to take care of the ball – combined with some tough shot making from Hemel – that ultimately saw Storm run out to a 102-94 win, despite George Pearl knocking down some huge threes to keep Breakers in contention.
“This is a game we should’ve been able to take,” said a frustrated Head Coach Nigel Lloyd shortly after the final buzzer. “To come here and open up a lead the way we did shows just how good this team can be, but giving up 31 turnovers and 20 offensive rebounds is unacceptable.
“Storm are always going to make it tough, we know that, but we have to do the simple things better in order to win games. We will address that this week and then look to deliver a much better performance in front of our fans against Derby next weekend.”
Indeed, that game at Bletchley Leisure Centre is on October 10 with a 17:00 tip-off. Tickets are available here.