Taipans 88
The travel-weary New Zealand Breakers made a triumphant return to the North Shore Events Centre last night, pulling off a remarkable escape act against the Cairns Taipans after being out-energised for much of the first three periods.
The table-topping Breakers trailed right up until the final play of the third quarter before shaking off their lethargy to record a remarkable come-from-behind victory.
Imports Gary Wilkinson and Kevin Braswell were instrumental in orchestrating the Breakers' escape act, pulling off some huge plays late in the third spell to get the Breakers noses in front for the first time in the match, while Kirk Penney, who finished with a game high 24-points, and Mika Vukona were hugely influential down the home stretch.
The win gives the Breakers a bit of breathing space at the top of the Australian NBL points table, but more importantly sealed a "series" win against the second-placed Taipans, which could prove vital come play-offs time.
The pre-match showboating from the Breakers reflected the morale in the camp, which appeared to be at an all-time high going in to the match.
And rightly so. The Breakers (12-3) have set the pace through the first half of the competition, despite facing a tough schedule on the road.
Returning to the North Shore Events Centre for the first time in a month, the Breakers were eager to make it a happy home-coming in front of a big and noisy crowd.
But it was the Taipans who got away to the most energetic start, with import Ron Dorsey opening with a spectacular alley-oop to get the visitors' bench off their feet from the outset.
And with the Taipans setting a cracking pace in transition to take advantage of some sloppy early offence from the Breakers, the score quickly stretched out to 8-2.
The Cairns side maintained that advantage for much of the opening spell, playing aggressive, in-your-face defence to ensure the home side were never able to get a run on them.
As a result the Breakers became frustrated and began to force plays that weren't on.
Trailing 23-19 at the first break, the home side again struggled to find their offensive rhythm in the second quarter with the Taipans doing an impressive job of containing the Breakers' multiple offensive threats by clogging up the middle of the lane and not allowing the home side to move the ball around as much as they would like.
While the Breakers were struggling to get any open looks at the basket, down the other end of the court Taipans' forwards Alex Loughton and Ian Crosswhite were finding easy passage on the inside and their lead crept out to 13 points mid-way through the period.
The Breakers toiled away for the rest of the quarter to try and rein their deficit back to single figures and their reward came in the final seconds of the first half, with import forward Gary Wilkinson nailing an emphatic dunk in a set in-bound play.
But at 35-43 at halftime, the Breakers needed much more of those inspirational plays to get back in the game.
At that point in the game three of their stars - Bruton, import Kevin Braswell and gutsy forward Mika Vukona had negative efficiency ratings.
Those sentiments were clearly echoed by coach Andrej Lemanis in the dressing room at halftime, with the Breakers displaying a noticeable lift in intensity following the break, closing to within three of the Taipans courtesy of a trey from Wilkinson.
But it wasn't until the final eight seconds of the third period that they were able to get their noses in front for the first time in the match, and then rubbed the visitors noses in it with Braswell landing a three right on the buzzer to take a 68-65 lead heading in to the final quarter.
Once their tails were up there was no stopping the Breakers as they extended their lead to 75-68 two minutes in to the fourth spell and held on for a crowd-pleasing win, that up until 13 minutes earlier had looked unlikely.
New Zealand Breakers 94 (Kirk Penney 24, Gary Wilkinson 22, CJ Bruton 13, Kevin Braswell 12)
Cairns Taipans 88 (Ron Dorsey 20, Ayinde Ubaka 14, Alex Loughton 14). Halftime: 35-47.
