In today's sports news - Breakers record win in NBL, Van Gisbergen back on top at Bathurst, Southland dominate cycling champs and Coooper wins another MTB title.
Latest - The New Zealand Breakers broke out on the back of 58 points from the Webster brothers to hammer the Adelaide 36ers 106-62 in the Australian National Basketball League.
Corey Webster Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Breakers scored the game's opening 14 points and were never headed by the 36ers from there, with Corey and Tai Webster hitting 29 points apiece.
The rest of the team came along for the ride for the 44-point win.
The Sixers went 2/14 from the field for six points and six turnovers in the opening period. They had just 30 points on the board to be 30 points behind at half-time.
Having already led by their biggest half-time lead in club history, the 44-point final margin was the biggest win in the history of a Breakers franchise with four championship banners hanging.
Breakers coach Dan Shamir was a relieved man that the win means his group won't be feeling how they were before the performance.
"I don't know if anybody who isn't in professional sports knows the feeling of what we were feeling like until two hours ago. It's a very bad life and every kind of win is super important, and in my personality I don't overreact to a win like that," Shamir said.
"Obviously it was a great game and in our business these things happen. We started the game very well and for whatever reason it went this way, and it was just something to ride on. It is just one win in a league where we are behind a lot but hopefully we can ride on it and build on it."
The Breakers are next in action against the Brisbane Bullets at the NBL Cup on Wednesday.
- NBL
Van Gisbergen wins Supercars opener
Supercars driver New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen has picked up where he left off in Bathurst, with the Red Bull Ampol Racing driver dominating Race 1 of the new season at the Mt Panorama 500.
Shane van Gisbergen Photo: Edgephotographics/Photosport
Van Gisbergen, who claimed victory in last October's Bathurst 1000, was never headed in the 40-lap affair on Saturday, which saw a number of key runners fall by the wayside.
Van Gisbergen showed the mettle he demonstrated on the mountain to win the Great Race four months prior, sailing to a 41st career win.
It marked the third instance that the Kiwi had won the opening race of the season, following victories on the streets of Adelaide in 2017 and 2018.
Chaz Mostert threw down the gauntlet at the end, but it was to no avail with van Gisbergen crossing the line by 1.4 seconds.
Will Davison was 18 seconds in arrears to clinch a podium on his DJR return.
Southland dominate at national track cycling champs
New Zealand endurance rider Kirstie James underlined her class with a dominant display on the final night of the Elite and Under 19 Track National Championships at Invercargill.
Kirstie James Photo: Photosport
The Southland rider rode in the second team sprint side, anchored the southerners to a team pursuit gold and then produced a standout display to take out the 20km points race in a finale to the four-day championship at the SIT Zero Fees Velodrome.
James, who took two laps on the field during the 20km, 80-lap race, received good support from her Southland teammates, Nicole Shields and Rylee McMullan who also took a lap and banked the silver medal, with Holly Edmondston (Mid-South Canterbury) third.
In the elite men's 30km points race final Southland's Corbin Strong claimed the first two sprints before Aaron Gate began to take control of the race, with reigning Commonwealth Games points race champion Mark Stewart - the Scotsman riding for Southland - also prominent.
Gate won the title, Stewart took silver and Strong bronze.
Southland claimed both the women's and men's elite and under-19 4000m team pursuit titles.
The Southland Red team took out the elite women's team sprint from Waikato-Bay of Plenty Gold.
Waikato claimed the elite men's team sprint over Canterbury.
Another mountain bike title for Cooper
Anton Cooper scored his seventh elite title and fifth in a row at the Mountain Bike National Championships in Christchurch and immediately set his sights on the Tokyo Olympics.
Anton Cooper Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Cooper, the Trek Factory professional, won the championship in 1:29.01, three minutes clear of fellow North Canterbury rider Ben Oliver at the Crocodile Park course.
Taupo 20-year-old Sammi Maxwell produced her best-ever ride to claim the elite and under-23 honours in the women in emphatic fashion 1:18.24, with two and half minutes to Wellington's Kate McIlroy.
Canterbury's Ethan Rose won the male under-19 division by more than five minutes.
West Indies turn to veteran players
Opener Chris Gayle is set to play his first match for West Indies in two years after he and veteran fast bowler Fidel Edwards were recalled for the three-match home Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka next week.
Chris Gayle Photo: Photosport
Former captain Gayle last played for West Indies in a one-day international against India in 2019 in what the 41-year-old then described as his last international appearance.
The swashbuckling batsman has kept himself busy in Twenty20 leagues across the world and played two matches for Quetta Gladiator in the ongoing Pakistan Super League before returning to Antigua.
Fast bowler Edwards, 39, has been recalled for potentially his first match for West Indies in more than eight years.
The teams will also play three one-dayers and two tests later in the series.
Test captain Jason Holders has been included in both the white-ball teams, but all-rounder Andre Russell has been left out as he recovers from catching COVID-19 this month.
Jamaican Russell has tested negative but must complete the board's return-to-play protocols before he can be considered for selection.
- Reuters
