KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand Breakers' star continues to shine.
Led by another superb three-point shooting effort from Kirk Penney, the Auckland-based franchise dispatched the Cairns Taipans 107-87 in Cairns just 48 hours after their equally emphatic 121-100 home win over the Wollongong Hawks on Thursday night.
It was a fourth straight win for the Breakers who have leapt into fourth place on the Australian NBL ladder with an 8-5 win-loss record to trail the Brisbane Bullets - 7-4 - but go well clear of four teams, including the Taipans, with a 50 per cent win-loss record.
The Sydney Kings and Melbourne Tigers remain well clear at the top of the table with just one loss each.
The Breakers have the chance to further cement their play-off hopes when they play a return with the Taipans at the North Shore Events Centre on Thursday night.
In Cairns, Penney was on fire.
He shot six-from-nine from the three-point line as he accumulated an impressive match-high 30 points.
The Breakers trailed early but stormed back and were in front at the end of each quarter. Their 33-15 third quarter romp was the telling blow.
Led by rookie sensation Nathan Jawai, who finished with an impressive 23 points, the home side took an early lead but they could not stop the rampant New Zealanders who led 30-23 at the end of the first quarter after shooting five from six (83 per cent) from beyond the arc.
Despite being forced to play catch-up, the Taipans closed to within two points just before halftime but a late charge had the Breakers out to 56-38 at the break.
Assisted by Oscar Forman and Phill Jones, who joined the three-point party, Penney continued to lead the way as they took the game away from the Taipans. The home side had some satisfaction in out-scoring their transtasman rivals in the fourth quarter but the game was lost by then.
Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis was understandably happy with the effort: "We did perform well. Consistency for the whole time has to be the key. We have to be good for 48 minutes," he said. "We have to be able to battle for the whole 48 minutes. We have to be ruthless."
The Breakers now have three home games - against the Taipans, then the South Dragons and then the real test against the table-topping Kings on December 6.
