Breakers 95
Crocodiles 86
KEY POINTS:
The Breakers hardly missed a beat on their ANBL playoffs mission last night despite a power failure at the North Shore Events Centre.
Parts of the stadium were in darkness and the match scoreboard blacked out with a quarter to go against the Townsville Crocs with the Breakers comfortably ahead.
The action was held up for around 15 minutes while officials arranged temporary score-keeping equipment which enabled the match to continue.
The Breakers went into the final 12 minutes with a 18-point buffer and maintained their dominance to pull the rip cord on their competition free-fall.
Heading in to the game on the back of three straight losses the Breakers were under the most pressure they have faced all season, with their place in the top two in the league standings under increasing threat.
Last night's win allowed them to gain a more secure foothold on the second position on the ladder, which, if they can maintain, will ensure a more favourable run through the play-offs in next month's finals series.
A dominant second quarter performance from the home side, which they won 24-9, sealed the Breakers' win against the club coach Andrej Lemanis spent nine years at as assistant coach.
CJ Bruton, the Breakers premier play-maker, looked much sharper in his second game back off the bench.
The uncompromising Crocs copped plenty of attention from the referees in the opening stages of the match, picking up six fouls in as many minutes, with Russell Hinder, Brad Williamson and import Rosell Ellis all collecting two marks against their name.
With plenty of opportunities from the free-throw line, the Breakers were able to capitalise, taking a 13-6 lead midway through opening period.
But with Townsville getting a better read on the referees as the spell wore on, the visitors found their rhythm and shortened the Breakers advantage to one point at the first break.
A scoring blitz early in the second quarter by point-guard Bruton saw the Breakers reassert some dominance on the match, as the Crocs came unstuck with a couple of unforced errors with star import Corey Williams the culprit on both occasions.
The shots just didn't seem to drop for the Townsville side in the second period, with the Breakers doing a good job of getting in their face on defence.
Meanwhile the points flowed freely down the other end for the home side, with a number of second-chance points on offer allowing the Breakers to open up a healthy 49-35 lead at halftime.
From there, the Breakers always looked firmly in control, stretching out their lead to 73-55 heading in to the final spell.
The Crocs looked threatening in patches, but the scrambling nature of their offence meant the visitors produced too many turnovers.
