BOXSCORE

The New Zealand Breakers finally found a way past their bogey team, defeating the Wollongong Hawks 82-74 at the North Shore Events Centre on Thursday night.

The eighth-placed Hawks have proved a handful for the titleholders in their last two match-ups – including their only home loss of the season in November.

But this time the Breakers took control of a tense encounter early in the final quarter, led by Tom Abercrombie’s 23 points, American Cedric Jackson’s 20-point, 10-rebound double and CJ Bruton’s 13 points.

American Joevan Catron had 14 points for the guests, while point guards Ayinde Ubaka (13 points) and Rhys Martin (12) provided support.

Jackson opened the scoring off an offensive rebound, then Mika Vukona spun around his marker for a reverse lay-up.

New Zealand were attacking the basket offensively and pressuring fullcourt on defence, but Wollongong lead 18-16 at quarter-time courtesy of a bomb from Tyson Demos.

When Davidson converted a three-point play after the restart, the Hawks had unleashed an 11-2 run to ease five points clear. The Breakers closed the gap with a Gary Wilkinson three-pointer and an Abercrombie three-point play.

Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod’s tactic of clogging the keyhole to limit Jackson continued to frustrate the import until he conceded a technical foul, and the Hawks still led 40-38 at half-time.

Soon after the restart Wilkinson also drew a technical, and the champions were hanging on by a thread in a playoff-intensity game that had the parochial crowd reacting to every call.

The Breakers edged ahead 56-54 entering the home straight, then scored the next five points to seize the momentum.

“The intensity and the energy levels at the defensive end were pleasing,” said Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis.

“Guys did a good job of denying lanes and being disruptive of their offence ... We believed if we continued to do it for 40 minutes, somewhere along the line it would pay dividends.”

When Abercrombie, who had 12 points in the final quarter, hit a trey with 3min 31sec remaining the advantage reached double figures and the final nail was in Wollongong's coffin.

“Tom has the ability to do that,” observed Lemanis. “One of the things we spoke about during the week was being more aggressive and going to the ring.

"Certainly, in that second half, a switch went off in Tom and he started to get into the paint. When he does that, good things happen for our team.”

New Zealand kept Oscar Forman without a shot attempt in the first half after he nailed 29 points in last week's clash.

“They played Oscar a lot more physical tonight and didn’t let us run any offence to get him some shots,” said McLeod.

“They really jammed it up the floor and made it a tough night at the office for our guards. We found ways to score and make a game of it, but in the end they shot it too well and rebounded too well.”

New Zealand Breakers 82 (Abercrombie 25, Jackson 20, Bruton 13, Wilkinson 10)
Wollongong Hawks 74 (Catron 14, Ubaka 13, Davidson 12, Martin 12)

Crowd: 3533 at North Shore Events Centre, Auckland