Breakers keep playoff hopes alive with victory

88 NZ Breakers 81 Sydney Kings

The New Zealand Breakers upset Australian NBL leaders Sydney 88-81 in New Plymouth last night to keep alive their top-four playoff hopes.

Big late three-point shots from Jarrad Weeks and Rob Loe lifted the seventh-placed Breakers to 10-12 with six regular-season games remaining.

The Kiwi club has little time to back up, with fourth-placed Melbourne United (11-10) the visiting team at Auckland’s Spark Arena tomorrow, with a difficult trip to second-placed Perth looming next week.

Both teams took the court at TSB Stadium short of full strength, with the Breakers missing backcourt pair RJ Hampton (hip) and Sek Henry (calf ), while the Kings (15-7) rested Andrew Bogut and are still minus Kevin Lisch and Craig Moller.

The Breakers were further weakened late in the third quarter when Brandon Ashley copped two unsportsmanlike fouls in the one incident and was ejected, while Kings pair Shaun Bruce and Jae’Sean Tate also received an unsportsmanlike each.

The loss for the Breakers of Ashley was offset when Sydney lost Tate with his fifth foul with more than seven minutes left in the match, and it always looked like a contest where someone would have to come up big to decide it.

Those men proved to be Loe and Weeks for the Breakers. Weeks hit a huge three with just under three minutes remaining to tie up the scores at 78-78.

Then after Tom Abercrombie put the Breakers up three, Loe clinched a memorable win for New Zealand when he knocked one down from deep to make it an 84-78 game, and the Breakers held on for the last 30 seconds.

Weeks had to come up big for the Breakers in the absence of Hampton and Henry, and he produced with 14 points and six rebounds.

New Zealand Breakers 88 (Hopson

30, Loe 18, Weeks 14)

Sydney Kings 81 (Tate 22, Ware 17, Cooks 12)