Basketball: Breakers on track to making history

New Zealand Breakers coach Andre Lemanis talks to his players at three quarter time against the Wollongong Hawks. Photo / Getty Images

The New Zealand Breakers' hopes of becoming the first New Zealand sporting team to win an Australian top-flight club competition soared this weekend as they shot to the top of the Australian National Basketball League.

Impressive road wins to knock off previous ladder leaders Wollongong Hawks and Melbourne Tigers have lifted expectations the Breakers can do what no other NZ club side competing in an Australian top-level league has managed.

The New Zealand Warriors in rugby league's NRL have come closest, advancing to the 2002 grand final but losing.

Wellington Phoenix's best effort is making last season's A-League preliminary final.

The Breakers, who have twice made the playoffs but never won the NBL, could even trump their netball counterparts.

All three trans-Tasman netball championships - featuring teams from Australia and New Zealand in a competition administered by both nations - have been won by Australian sides.

It was the manner of the Breakers' back-to-back wins - snapping the Hawks' 15-match winning run at home on Friday night with an 89-85 victory and then recovering from a seemingly impossible position to beat the Tigers in Melbourne the following night - that franked their credentials.

With world-class guard Kirk Penney scoring freely but just one of many threats all over the court, the Breakers' depth is the envy of the league.

"The reality of what it is - it's a New Zealand national team with two imports and CJ (Bruton). They're a good team," Wollongong Hawks coach Gordie McLeod said.

"They've got a lot of depth and they use it very well."

After being well held for three quarters, Penney spearheaded Saturday night's 90-80 win over the Tigers with 16 of his 25 points coming in a red-hot final term.

The defeat left the Tigers second bottom with a 2-9 win-loss record.

But Tigers coach Al Westover refuses to concede his side was out of finals contention, pointing to their remarkable 1997 season when they came from 3-11 to win the championship - albeit with a star-studded line-up including Andrew Gaze and Mark Bradtke.

"We've won the championship when we've been 3-9 and there's not much difference (this season)," Westover said.

"If we can string something together I still think we're a chance. You can see we're not far away."

In Saturday's other match, Cairns Taipans moved to 7-3 with a low-scoring 56-51 win in the north Queensland derby against fifth-placed Townsville.

- AAP