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MELBOURNE - The South Dragons continued their rise up the NBL ladder with a 117-109 win over the New Zealand Breakers at Vodafone Arena.
Kavossy Franklin led the Dragons with 30 points and playing coach Shane Heal added 22.
Carlos Powell kept the Breakers in the game with 34 points but when he fouled out with just over five minutes remaining, New Zealand's quest for an upset was all over.
Powell received good support from fellow import Brian Wethers, who added 23 points.
The Dragons jumped to an early 12-point lead and the visitors were chasing the game from that point on.
The Breakers tied the game in the second quarter at 52-52 but the Dragons steadied and regained their advantage to lead by five points at halftime.
The first half had Franklin and Powell engaged in a personal scoring battle. Powell finished the half with 24 points while Franklin had 20 for the Dragons.
The teams traded baskets throughout the third quarter with the Dragons extending their edge to eight points at the final change. Powell and Frank Drmic tangled early in the final term with the New Zealand import picking up his fifth foul.
Three minutes later, Powell fouled Heal, and went to the bench.
The Breakers trailed 98-93 at the time and the Dragons were able to pull away to record their eighth victory from their last 13 games.
Breakers coach Andre Lemanis was pleased with his team's effort on Saturday, if not the result.
"I'm not too disappointed about how we played," he said.
"We got after it, we got behind early but believed that their shooting would cool off and we'd be able to get back into the game.
"The one important thing for us was turnovers, we had 19 of those that means easy baskets the other way."
Heal described the win as one of the biggest for the club since he had taken over as coach.
"That was a huge result for us," Heal said. "It was a game we had to win. We didn't win in a pretty style but overall I was happy with the intensity of the team."
- AAP
