Another stellar performance from skipper Kirk Penney helped the New Zealand Breakers to their fourth straight victory, downing the Wollongong Hawks 88-60 at the North Shore Events Centre on Thursday night.
After losing their last three games to Wollongong, the Breakers came out firing and led the entire game to keep their play-off hopes alive after leap-frogging the Hawks into fourth place on the NBL ladder.
Penney, as usual, led from the front and top-scored for his side with 23 points and was once again backed up well by CJ Bruton (19 points).
The Hawks struggled to retain enough possession of the ball and never really threatened the home side. Captain Mat Campbell did his best to lead the side, but the points never came Wollongong's way, made evident by Tim Coenraad and Cameron Tragardh top-scoring with just 12 points.
The Breakers got off to an ideal start with Bruton nailing two quick three-pointers to help his side out to an early lead. Meanwhile the Hawks were struggling for accuracy and were clearly missing star import Tywain McKee who is out for the season with a back injury.
Things seemed to get worse for the Hawks when 216cm 22-year-old Alex Fledger made an appearance from the bench and immediately made an impact. The centre was far outjumping the Hawks defenders under the net, allowing Penney and Bruton to pile on some early points.
Although the Breakers slowed down the scoring somewhat, the hostse still managed to take a 19-16 lead into the first break.
The Breakers began the second quarter a little more conservatively but continued their outstanding defence to hold onto a decent buffer over the Hawks.
Campbell led a mini-comeback towards the end of the half with two three-pointers after capitalising on some wayward passes from the Breakers.
Penney steered his side back on course however to end the half with a 42-34 lead after picking up 12 points of his own during the half.
Tony Ronaldson became the eighth New Zealand Breaker to reach 1000 points for the club early in the second half when he nailed two free-throws to extend his side's lead. The game was Ronaldson's 86th for the Breakers and his 662nd game in the league.
Penney continued his control on the match deep into the third-quarter and allowed the Breakers to balloon out to a 15-point lead. The Hawks were having difficulty controlling the inspirational skipper who was on-target with most of his shots and was slipping through the defence with ease.
The Breakers looked to have it made late in the third quarter when they got out to a 20-point lead with the Hawks losing a lot of possession in scoring opportunities.
Wollongong forward Coenraad was the only player that seemed to be able to notch any points, securing 10 shortly before the end of the third quarter.
The Breakers came into the final quarter with a 16-point lead (63-47), knowing a win was well-and-truly within reach if they managed to do more of the same in the final quarter.
The home side was doing all it could to keep the clock ticking as time began to run out for the Hawks who were desperately trying to claw their way back into the game.
In the end the deficit was far too big for the Hawks to overcome as the Breakers secured a massive 88-60 win to keep their play-off hopes alive in their penultimate game of the regular season.
New Zealand Breakers 88 (Penney 23, Bruton 19, Ronaldson 10)
Wollongong Hawks 60 (Coenraad 12, Tragardh 12, Campbell 8)
@ the North Shore Events Centre.