Basketball: Breakers triumph in OT

Cedric Jackson led the Breakers with 18 points. Photo / Getty

Breakers 98
Hawks 91

It was tough to tell which team was top of the table and which occupied last place but, eventually, the high-flyers emerged triumphant.

Instead of the walkover the sides' respective records indicated -- with the Breakers (15-5) in first and the Hawks (3-16) in last -- the Kiwi club were made to work exceptionally hard for their win at the NSEC.

They endured a slow start that threatened to stall their efforts before they really began. They dealt with a pesky Hawks side that refused to wilt once the home side turned up the heat.

They were forced to survive their first overtime game in almost two years, with the extra period arriving after Rhys Martin nailed a buzzer-beating three-pointer to tie the game.

Overtime, in which the Breakers ran away with the win, was the minimum the Hawks deserved.

They controlled proceedings for much of the game as, aside from a brief flurry to begin the fourth, the Breakers were as flat as they have been all season.

"I wasn't pleased with the way we came out tonight," said coach Dean Vickerman. "For whatever reason, they were quicker than us and it took us a little while to wake up.

"But [those challenges] are good for our group right now, they respond to those."

The response, as it so often does, came from Cedric Jackson, who top-scored with 18, while Tom Abercrombie grabbed 16 and Corey Webster had 15. But, in truth, there was little for any individual to put in a personal highlights package.

Instead, the prevailing positive would have been the determination shown in the face of such an uneven performance. The game could easily have been squandered but the Breakers battled to defend their home court and will be confident of putting the off night behind them before Sunday's rematch in Wollongong.

To convert that confidence into a fourth straight win the Breakers will need to rid themselves of the malaise that arrived early last night. The Kiwi club trailed by six at the major break after a half in which they appeared to play down to their opponents' level, with the offence rushed and open looks being missed.

The Breakers succeeded with fewer than a quarter of their shots in the first but, fortunately for the hosts, the Hawks' radars were equally askew. The visitors still led by as many as eight in the second and there would have been no prizes awarded for guessing the tone of Vickerman's halftime speech.

Judging by the opening moments of the third, though, the message was received, loud and clear. The Breakers quickly seized their first lead of the game on the back of a 10-0 run, with Jackson and Abercrombie especially effective, only for the Hawks to halt the run and continue to hang tough.

Wollongong shot four straight triples in the period to keep the Breakers at bay and only a late jumper from Webster saw the teams level heading into the fourth. The game ebbed and flowed for much of the final quarter but the Breakers seemed to have the best of the foul-shooting contest that eventuated.

Enter Martin. Unfortunately for the guard, however, his heroics were unable to prevent the Breakers from establishing supremacy in overtime and closing out an ugly but morale-boosting win.

Breakers 98 (Jackson 18, Abercrombie 16, Webster 15)
Hawks 91 (Ervin 21, Martin 21, Carson 17)
HT: 33-39