Breakers 99
Adelaide 91
The Breakers maintained their unbeaten home start to the ANBL season against Adelaide last night but only after a CJ Bruton three with 5.8 seconds left in regulation time took a game they looked to have thrown away into overtime.
Bruton had connected with just one of 11 previous threes but he showed plenty of nerve to knock down the shot that really counted on a wild night at the North Shore Events Centre.
The 36ers will be kicking themselves they didn't finish off the game after storming back with a 35-15 third quarter to overturn a deficit that had stood as high as 24 late in the second quarter.With 21.9 seconds on the clock a Bruton turnover looked to have sealed the Breakers' fate.
Bruton pulled down 36ers import John Gilchrist and, with the foul ruled unsportsmanlike, the 36ers had the game at their mercy.
Gilchrist knocked down both free throws but Cortez Groves missed a simple lay-up from the in-bound, allowing the Breakers a glimmer of hope.
Thomas Abercrombie cut the deficit in half with a dunk and the Breakers quickly fouled Brad Hill. Hill missed his first free-throw, giving Bruton the chance to lock it up with his pressure three-pointer.
Another Bruton three to kick start overtime set the Breakers on the road to victory, with an Abercrombie three-point play from a dunk that drew a foul finally breaking the 36ers.
"That was an amazing game," coach Andrej Lemanis said.
"When you look at it we won four of the five periods of play but obviously that third quarter was a disaster for us.
"But we found a way to get it done. To be able to find a way to win when we are not hitting threes is very pleasing."
The win takes the Breakers to 4-3 and, with the eight-team ladder beginning to split into two, they find themselves in the right half in the race for the four playoff berths.
They will, however, have to rectify a tendency to melt down and throw away big leads if they want to continue their progression.
By halftime they were well clear despite not managing a single successful three point shot.
They launched only four in the half, relying instead on a succession of dunks, lay-ups and alley-oops from Rick Rickert and Abercrombie. Of the 49 points they chalked up in the first half, 34 came in the paint.
Rickert set the tone with 11 early points and five rebounds as the Breakers edged to a 22-16 quarter-time lead.
A 12-0 run to start the second quarter blew the game open, with the Breakers leading by 24 before a late 36ers run cut the gap to 18 at the break.
A dunk from rarely used big man Alex Pledger kick-started the second quarter. Abercrombie then slammed down a brace of dunks before producing his party piece alley-oop from a Tony Ronaldson pass.
At the other end the Breakers were in lock down mode, keeping the 36ers to just 31 points for the half.
But that changed in the third quarter, with the 36ers throwing off the shackles to storm all the way back.
Shooting guard Kirk Penney sat out his fourth game in a row with a back injury but with too much of the perimeter shooting burden falling to Bruton, his return can't come soon enough.
Their next assignment is the visit of the 3-5 Gold Coast Blaze next Thursday before home and away matches against second-placed Perth.
