KEY POINTS:
Breakers 116 Razorbacks 104
The NZ Breakers slipped back into the top eight in the Australian NBL after a close encounter with bottom of the table West Sydney Razorbacks at the North Shore Events Centre last night.
With four minutes remaining the Breakers held a one-point lead, but strong defence and boundless energy saw them home.
The Razorbacks had the better of the first half. They foraged from the opening buzzer determined to break their hoodoo of 20 straight losses on the road.
James Harvey was dynamic for the West Sydneysiders, scoring 22 points in the first half, including two three pointers.
Brian Wethers carried the points for the Breakers. Wethers slammed home eight points in the first quarter. But bad passes by the Breakers saw the visitors ahead 27-24 going into the next 12 minutes.
Harvey was on top of the Breakers, quickly taking his team out to a 10-point lead.
West Sydney held the lead at 45-35 mid-way through the second quarter. Wethers, Aaron Olsen and Mika Vukona then stepped up the defence and Carlos Powell went on a scoring spree to bridge the gap to just two points West Sydney leading 51-49.
Harvey came back in the final minutes to have the Razorbacks leading 60-55 at the break.
Lemanis said that after a bad start his team lifted the defence in the second half.
"We rebounded with plenty of energy and we did a great job getting back into the game," he said.
Powell had an ANBL career high of 38 points for the game, Pepper in his 50th consecutive game for the Breakers scored 28. Wethers had 19 and 10 rebounds.
The Breakers' next game is on Saturday in Brisbane against the Bullets.
