Breakers on track for top two

WOLLONGONG: The New Zealand Breakers had to overcome a 16point deficit but shrugged off a rough first half in Wollongong to take a step closer to securing second place in the NBL with a 9181 win over the Illawarra Hawks.

The Breakers came into the last round needing to beat the bottom two teams on the road to leapfrog the Cairns Taipans into second position and earn an automatic semifinal berth.

The Hawks shocked the Breakers in Auckland a couple of weeks ago with a halfcourt winner and the home team was out to do it again in its secondlast game.

They produced a tremendous firsthalf performance including 30 points in the first quarter before opening up a gamehigh 16point lead by halftime.

Illawarra was shooting 60% for the half and New Zealand 35%.

The Breakers were doing most things right except they were not nailing their shots.

The Breakers shot better in the second half — and closed the third quarter with a 234 run.

After the Hawks got back within one, they scored 15 of the game’s last 21 points to win by 10.

That improves New Zealand to 1710 and a win in Brisbane today will lock down second position.

Barry Brown jun topscored for the Breakers with 22 points.

Breakers coach Mody Maor did not like what his team dished out in the first half, but was delighted with the response.

‘‘It was an abysmal first half from us in every aspect.

‘‘We need to go and find out [why] so it doesn’t happen again, but the response in the second half was great.

‘‘Both from an effort and from a focus standpoint, it showed a lot of character.’’ — RNZ