KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand Breakers took a significant step towards their goal of a first Australian National Basketball League playoff appearance with a record 126-93 win over the Gold Coast Blaze in Auckland last night.
The 33-point winning margin was the biggest the Breakers have managed in their five seasons in the league and beat by one point their 113-81 win away to Victoria in their debut season.
Their 126 points was also just short of the club record achieved in downing Brisbane at home in November.
The result gave the Breakers their head-to-head season series over Gold Coast 2-0 and lifted them above the Blaze to sixth on the ladder.
The earlier meeting between the two franchises was in November, when the Breakers handed the league newcomers their then biggest defeat of 90-79.
Guard Kirk Penney was again a primary source of points with a game-high 32, while American imports Derrick Alston and Orien Greene contributed 23 and 19 respectively.
Tony Ronaldson collected the eight points he needed to pass Derek Rucker's career tally of 9379 and move to sixth on the ANBL all-time scoring lists.
But having achieved the feat in the second quarter, Ronaldson limped off with an ankle injury.
With point guard Greene showing plenty of classy touches, the Breakers led 28-22 at quarter time, before stepping up a gear, and a sequence of 13 unanswered points lifted them to a 60-42 advantage.
From there, it was a case of the home side keeping their foot on the pedal.
The Blaze, who struggled with shooting accuracy, had two former Breakers on show in inaugural skipper Pero Cameron and Casey Frank. Frank top-scored for his side with 21 points, while Cameron grabbed 10.
Meanwhile, Luke Whitehead made his debut off the bench for the Blaze as replacement for fellow American import Juaquin Hawkins, who is out for the season after suffering a minor stroke.
With nine games of the regular season to go, the Breakers want to keep control of their own destiny in the race for playoff spots.
Six of the nine games are against sides that are now in the top five but only four are at home.
- NZPA
