KEY POINTS:
Breakers 113 Taipans 106
The New Zealand Breakers lifted their game in the final four minutes to score a much needed win over Cairns Taipans at the North Shore Events Centre last night.
The Taipans are fifth on the ladder and the Breakers victory pulls them back into the top eight and back into playoff contention.
It was showtime for Carlos Powell as he scored at will punching through the defence of Martin Cattalini for three pointers and classy passes to Oscar Forman to give the home crowd plenty to cheer about.
The Breakers had the better of the first quarter, racing out to a 17-5 lead.
Powell was on fire, dominating the scoring.
A time out by Cairns reversed the trend. Lead by Aaron Grabau and Matt Smith, the Taipans snaked in eight unanswered points to get them back into the game.
However Tim Behrendorff subbed on for Ben Pepper and took seven points to have the Breakers ahead 29-28 at the end of the quarter.
Mid-way through the next period the score was level 42-all.
Pepper was dynamic on the defensive rebounds taking five in the first half to take his tally of rebounds to 800 for the club and pass a career total of 2500.
The Breakers gave up 17 offensive rebounds and a further three pointer by Grabau had the Taipans ahead 54-51 at the break.
Pepper kept Kevin Owens in foul trouble and he had just 20 minutes on the court.
It was all tied up at 79 each going into the final quarter.
Powell top scored with 30 and 10 rebounds, with Pepper on 23 and also 10 rebounds. Cattalini was the best for Cairns with 26.
Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis said giving up 17 offensive rebounds in the first half fired up the team.
"We lifted our defence and got back on the boards. It was a good team effort."
The Breakers have a tough road trip coming up in which they travel to Perth, Singapore and Melbourne.
