Davison continues rise alongside Mennenga

Carlin Davison continues to step up impressively for the BNZ Breakers and is forming quite the impressive duo with Sam Mennenga, but in the big picture he wants to be part of winning and hopes that starts back home on Friday.

Davison has been a breakout star so far of NBL27 with the way he has embraced the opportunities as a point guard with the BNZ Breakers and will need to continue to do so now with superstar captain Parker Jackson-Cartwright's season over.

He has been ruled out for the rest of NBL27 with a stress fracture in his tibia. That's the bad news, but the good news for the BNZ Breakers is that it will provide Davison the opportunity to continue to thrive in his role as a point guard.

While he is no stranger to playing the one position, having done plenty of it in the NZ NBL where he averaged 7.4 assists to go with 7.0 rebounds and 14.0 points this past season at the Wellington Saints, he'd never got to show previously what he could do in the NBL.

Instead, Davison had spent most of his NBL career with the BNZ Breakers as a three and four man with great athleticism and explosiveness, and he could do exciting things in the open floor, but now he is getting the chance to really shine.

Over the past seven games now since moving into the point guard role, Davison has delivered 10.3 assists to go with 11.4 points and 4.9 rebounds while shooting 54 per cent from the field and going 8/17 from the outside.

He has turned into the breakout star this NBL season and surely the leading Most Improved Player candidate, but Davison is just focused on the team.

And with the BNZ Breakers having played nine of 12 matches so far in Australia this season, he can't wait for a full week back home this week and then to get back to Spark Arena on Friday night against the Brisbane Bullets.

"Yeah, the energy at home is great," Davison said.

"So I think if we can, you know, if the crowd gets behind us back home, we should be able to pull off a win. But yeah, it's going to be great to be home and just spend a bit of time on home soil."

Looking back to the last game that the BNZ Breakers played against the Tasmania JackJumpers in Launceston on Friday, they found themselves down 11 in the first quarter but had got scores back level by half-time.

They again conceded the first seven points of the second half, but then fought back impressively once more and had a chance to snatch the game on the buzzer.

While the fightbacks were impressive from the BNZ Breakers to give them a chance at what would have been a fifth win of the season and a third in Australia, Davison is looking for closer to 40-minute performances from the team moving forward.

"Yeah, the second half was better from us but in the first half we were just too slow, and we just weren't switched on straight away," Davison said.

"But in the second half we didn't stop fighting and everyone that got out there gave 100 per cent so being proud of the boys for that, but we've got to do that for 40 minutes.

"You always feel like there's still a chance and it's just we've got to fight, not give up, and it felt like we did that in the second half."

Davison hasn’t been the only one stepping up big time of late for the BNZ Breakers with fellow Kiwi Sam Mennenga in dominant form as he continues to turn himself into one of the most unstoppable forces across the NBL.

Often it takes a while for BNZ Breakers players to get the recognition they deserve from those in Australia, but it would be remarkable if Mennenga isn’t making himself a genuine MVP contender.

He is averaging 23.3 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists across the whole season, but in the past seven matches where Davison is also shining, he's up to 28.1 points, 10.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists while over that time, shooting 61 per cent from the field and 40 per cent from behind the arc.

Davison certainly enjoys playing alongside him and with the chemistry they are building as point guard-big man, but he'd be liking it a lot more if they were winning too.

"I mean, yeah, it's fun, but I want to win games," Davison said.

"Sam's a great screener, great roller and he's easy to find in the pocket but yeah, I just want to win. It's fun being out there, but I want to win.

"He works hard, he goes to the gym and he's the first one there every morning, and he shoots and gets better in the weight room.

"You know, if you keep doing that every single day, you're gonna see results on the court. So it's a credit to his hard work and you've seen all that work pay off."