Adelaide 71
A relaxed-looked New Zealand Breakers team eased to a 100-71 win over the Adelaide 36ers in an Australian National Basketball League match in Auckland tonight.
In a game which honoured long-serving guard Paul Henare's eight years at the club, the Breakers cruised for three-quarters of the match before hammering home in the final 10 minutes to an emphatic win.
Henare, who retires at the end of the season, kick-started the game in style, slotting the first basket of the match.
At 32, Henare is one of three foundation members on the Breakers' roster, along with Dillon Boucher and Mika Vukona. But only he has been with the franchise every season since their entry into the competition in 2003-4.
Although they were missing target man Gary Wilkinson -- benched by a bout of flu -- the Breakers still managed a solid start against the second-from bottom 36ers to lead 30-22 at the end of the first quarter.
Adelaide tightened their defence in the second quarter, some superb shooting from Daniel Johnson -- who topped Adelaide's scoring with 24 - seeing them shade the Breakers 23-20 to trail 45-50 at halftime.
Honours were shared 20-20 in the third quarter and the Breakers went into the final stanza with a 70-65 lead.
However, a horror fourth quarter -- it took more than eight minutes for them to add to their score -- meant the Breakers took the spell 30-6 to shut out the match.
Thomas Abercrombie led the Breakers' scoring with 26, well backed up by Kirk Penney's 19, while Alex Pledger picked up a double with 10 rebounds and 12 points.
The win confirmed the Breakers' post-season position as top qualifiers, sitting at 21-6 with one match to go.
They complete their regular-season schedule on Saturday away to Melbourne then begin their best-of-three semifinal five days later.
Their opponents will be determined by the North Queensland derby between second-placed Townsville and fourth-placed Cairns on Friday night.
- NZPA
