Breakers Overpower Taipans in the Far North

Once the New Zealand Breakers stopped turning the ball over, they got right back in their groove to lockdown the Cairns Taipans with Barry Brown Jr the finisher once more in Friday night's 82-71 win in the Far North.

After being the bottom two teams last season, the Taipans and Breakers came into the Round 8 clash at Cairns Convention Centre as two of the top three teams and looking to keep their momentum going.

The Snakes started well with a double-figure lead early in the second quarter having forced New Zealand into 10 turnovers up to that point. But once the Breakers started taking care of the ball, the game took on a dramatic shift.

With New Zealand holding Cairns to nine points in the second term, they went into the break leading by three and then opened up their own 11-point lead late in the third period.

The Taipans kept coming and did close to within a point midway through the fourth, but once again the Breakers responded with the next 10 points to ice the victory.

The win improves the Breakers to 9-3 on the season having now won six of seven on the road with the Taipans 6-4 and having won just one in four at home.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Barry doing what he does best ?<br><br>4th on Sky Sport 2 and Prime now!! <a href="https://t.co/JnUKPQnpat">pic.twitter.com/JnUKPQnpat</a></p>&mdash; Sky Sport New Zealand Breakers (@NZBreakers) <a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers/status/1596081234266181634?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 25, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

For all the talk of how good the Taipans frontcourt has been, and rightfully so, the Breakers without question got on top once again led by the powerful presence of Dererk Pardon.

He was a beast once more with 15 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and two blocks while Jarrell Brantley delivered 20 points, seven boards and four assists.

Barry Brown Jr again had a slow start but came up huge in the second half for the Breakers playing that role as a closer. He finished with 20 points, six rebounds and hit 3/6 from downtown.

Izayah Le'afa added 11 points, Will McDowell-White nine points and eight assists and captain Tom Abercrombie two huge threes for seven points and eight rebounds along with having a big hand in limiting DJ Hogg to four points on 1/9.

Breakers coach Mody Maor still wasn’t happy with the 17 turnovers despite the majority of them coming in the game's first 11 points, but saw a lot else to like from his team.

"Having 17 turnovers will never make me happy, but this team has a lot of character, a lot of grit, a lot of toughness and a good sense of belief in how we play and what we want to do.

So even when things don't go our way, we know how to get back to our baseline, we know how to execute and we know where we want to go. 

"I'm very proud of the guys for how they responded against a very good team and a loud crowd in a tough environment. These are the kind of tests we need."

Sam Waardenburg put up 15 points, six rebounds and two blocks on 6/8 shooting for the Taipans with Keanu Pinder contributing 14 points, 10 boards and three assists.

Tahjere McCall also had 13 points and three steals with Shannon Scott finishing with nine points and seven assists.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Breakers finished the quarter like THAT ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/klQeIQxIv5">pic.twitter.com/klQeIQxIv5</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1596065878843400192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 25, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Cairns coach Adam Forde gave full credit to the Breakers for not allowing them to find their rhythm offensively the longer the game went.

"New Zealand, for the second time now, did a great job of slowing us down," Forde said.

"We had no points in the paint really and it's got to be pretty low in terms of transition points for us. In the first quarter we got some stops and got some momentum, and we generated something like half a dozen steals and then Ayre's three to start the second. 

"Then we didn’t really score anything other than the three foul shots at the end of the half. Credit to New Zealand, I mean that's a tough defensive team. Anytime we sort of got a little bit of momentum or a run, they just slowed us right down and made us play at their pace. They were tough."

The Taipans brought the energy early and opened up a 6-2 lead on their home floor, and their pressure was leading to a host of Breakers turnovers that they were able to take full advantage of.

The Snakes capitalised with an 11-0 run that started with three-pointers to Shannon Scott and DJ Hogg to see their advantage out to 19-9.

Cairns still led 23-16 by quarter-time with the nine turnovers from the Breakers meaning the Taipans took seven extra field goals with 16 of the 23 points coming in the paint.

The Snakes were back up nine early in the second quarter with a triple from Ben Ayre, but the game then on a dramatic transformation.

Things dried up completely offensively for the home team with New Zealand scoring the next 12 points including three-pointers to Izayah Le'afa and Jarrell Brantley on yet another offensive rebound.

Will McDowell-White set up Dererk Pardon for the flush and the Breakers were on top.

A powerful and-one finish late in the half from Pardon helped New Zealand head into the break leading 35-32 having held the Taipans to nine points for the quarter and to just two field goal makes.

The Taipans started the second half better with a couple of buckets to Keanu Pinder, but the Breakers continued to have all the answers and their lead was soon out to double-figures with Le'afa and Tom Abercrombie connecting from downtown.

Barry Brown Jr was warming up too and nailed a couple of triples on his way to 10 points in a matter of minutes, but the Taipans stayed in touch. The margin was just six following a half-court prayer on the three quarter-time buzzer that banked in from Tahjere McCall.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TAHJERE MCCALL CALLED BANK AT THE BUZZER ? <br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/uY8O56Wutm">pic.twitter.com/uY8O56Wutm</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1596081041948610560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 25, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Breakers were soon back up 10 to start the fourth term, but the Taipans weren’t going to go down without a fight. They closed the deficit with six straight points, and then a breakaway finish from Shannon Scott made it a three-point ball game with six minutes on the clock.

Scott scored again to bring the margin back to one but New Zealand steadied with a Le'afa three following another offensive rebound.

That began a game clinching 10-0 run for the Breakers with Brown hitting another big shot, Brantley draining a three and Le'afa scoring again on the break with New Zealand going on to win by 11.

Both teams play again in Round 8 with the Breakers hosting the Brisbane Bullets on Sunday before the Taipans remain at home to take on the Sydney Kings on Monday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 8

CAIRNS TAIPANS 71 (Waardenburg 15, Pinder 14, McCall 13)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 82 (Brantley 20, Brown Jr 20, Pardon 15) 

BOX SCORE