Basketball: Breakers beat West Sydney

The New Zealand Breakers began their climb from the foot of the Australian NBL ladder with a 109-102 win over West Sydney in Auckland today.

In a seesawing contest it was the Breakers' second win from eight matches this season, and inflicted the third loss from five matches on the seventh-placed Razorbacks.

The Breakers held handy seven-point leads at halftime, 62-55, and three-quarter time, 83-76, but the visitors stormed back in the final stanza.

It took the cool head of American import Brant Bailey to seal the victory with a three-pointer 55 seconds from fulltime to stretch the lead to 107-99.

Tall Blacks guard Aaron Olson put the stamp on with two successful freethrows with 24sec left.

Import Rich Melzer led the Breakers' scoring with 24 points and six rebounds, while Olson contributed 16 points.

James Harvey dominated in a losing cause for West Sydney, leading all scorers with 39 points and dragging in nine rebounds.

The noon start seemed as if it would play into the Breakers' hands, meaning a 9am Australian time start for the Razorbacks who flew into Auckland last night.

But the visitors shot out of the blocks to go to a 9-0 lead with a flurry of early baskets including Jermaine Blackburn's court-length run from a steal.

The Breakers then surged to a eight-point lead in the second quarter before West Sydney reeled them back to break even.

At halftime the Breakers led 62-55 but West Sydney got the better of the third-quarter contest to briefly reclaim the lead, before the Breakers stretched it to a seven-point margin with one quarter left.

The Breakers' next match is on Sunday against Wollongong in Auckland.

Scores:
New Zealand Breakers 109 (R Melzer 24, A Olsen 16, L Tait 14)
West Sydney Razorbacks 102 (J Harvey 39, J Blackburn 19, J Cornett 13)
Halftime: 62-55

- NZPA