KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand Breakers showed they will be a force in the Australian National Basketball League (ANBL) playoffs with a 105-91 win over the second-placed Melbourne Tigers in Auckland tonight.
Having qualified for the playoffs for the first time in their five-year history this week, the Breakers put up a tremendous team performance to dominate the Tigers and help their chance of earning a home playoff.
In front of the biggest and loudest home crowd of the season, the seventh-placed Breakers got off to a fantastic start and were soon up by 14 points.
Tony Ronaldson, playing his 600th ANBL game, and Derrick Alston were hard to stop early on, while point guard Orien Greene took on more scoring responsibility than usual.
Melbourne got back into the game after a timeout and brought the margin back to nine at one point but some sweet shooting took the Breakers out to 30-18 at quarter time.
It was a more even second quarter as Melbourne, led by Chris Anstey and David Barlow, got their offence together and trimmed the margin to six points before a Greene three-pointer on the buzzer gave the Breakers a 54-45 lead at the halftime.
The Breakers started the second half in similar fashion to the first, extending their advantage to 18 points at one stage through a dazzling running game courtesy of Greene and Kirk Penney.
Anstey led Melbourne back to within nine again midway through the third quarter, but some brilliant shooting from Penney and great defensive work by Alston helped push the lead to 19 at the three-quarter time.
Melbourne tried to bridge the gap in the final quarter but the Breakers held their nerve and by the end of the match they were content to let the clock tick away.
The 14-point margin will help the Breakers improve their points differential, which could decide which team earn a home semifinal.
They have two more away matches, against table-topping Sydney Kings and finally the Perth Wildcats, to improve their position.
The fifth and sixth teams will host the first elimination matches, playing the eighth and seventh teams respectively.
The winners of those matches will then be hosted by the third and fourth teams.
The playoffs begin on February 20.
- NZPA
