Breakers import rewarded with NBL weekly honour

New Zealand Breakers import Carlos Powell has been rewarded for his impressive early form, winning the National Basketball League’s (NBL) Philips Player of the Week award for Round Five.

Powell has proven quite a pick-up for the New Zealand franchise since making his debut in Round Two this season, having averaged 27.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists in six appearances for the club.

For the week, Powell averaged 20.5 points, 10.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.0 blocks, as the Breakers went 1-1 in Round Five.

Powell put in his best performance for the Breakers on Monday night bagging 35 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, one block and one steal as his side went down 98-95 to the Wollongong Hawks.

The 200cm forward then backed up two nights later to lead his team to an impressive 111-106 win over the red-hot Brisbane Bullets. Powell scored 23 points while adding nine rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block.

Powell was pleased with his efforts, but said it was more about the team’s performance then his own.

“It was a good team effort, we obviously try to win as many games as possible and from a team standpoint we kept positive and got a win, which is what we went out to do,” Powell said.

“For me personally I just tried to help the team as much as possible and they told me to go out there and do my thing and that’s pretty much what I did. I played the game and made my shots and I was happy with my performances."

On the heels of Powell for the weekly award in Round Five was Melbourne Tigers star Rashad Tucker, who averaged 20.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.5 blocks as the Tigers went 2-0 and moved into outright first on the Philips Championship ladder.

Wollongong’s Adam Ballinger was another who can consider himself unlucky to miss the award after he averaged 31.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 blocks over the Hawks two games.

Other players in the running for the Player of the Week award for Round Five included Chris Anstey (Melbourne), Larry Abney (Townsville), Willie Farley (Adelaide), Paul Henare (New Zealand), CJ Bruton (Brisbane), Ebi Ere (Brisbane), Shane Heal (South), Tony Ronaldson (Perth), Marquin Chandler (Singapore), James Harvey (West Sydney), Mike Helms (Singapore), David Barlow (Sydney), Martin Cattalini (Cairns).

For winning the Player of the Week award this round, Powell will receive Philips’ latest Dual DECT/Internet Skype phone - Simplicity is making discounted and free phone calls to your friends and family all around the world.