Breakers Overpower United for Critical Result

The New Zealand Breakers found the going tough early at home to Melbourne United but Rob Loe kept them close and then sealed the deal on a 19-0 scoring run for the critical 80-74 Saturday night result.

The stakes are significant for both teams in the last two rounds with the Breakers trying to still finish top two and United just to make the top six altogether. For a lot of Saturday night at Spark Arena, Melbourne looked on track for a sixth consecutive win.

United held the Breakers to just 12 points in the game's first 12 minutes before it was veteran back up big Loe who sparked New Zealand back into the contest to trail by just three at half-time.

It still took until the end of the third period for the Breakers to grab the lead for the first time and that turned into a game turning 19-0 run either side of three quarter-time. 

Loe topped it off with back-to-back three balls to start the fourth with the Breakers ending up going from six down late in the third to 13 up four minutes into the fourth.

That was enough to secure the eventual six-point win and it could be a season-defining result for both teams. 

The Breakers improve to 15-10 with the win to strengthen their top two push. United remain outside the top six at 14-13 with just one game to go next week at home to Adelaide.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">1??7?? point run for the Breakers!<br><br>Spark Arena is absolutely ????????? right now ?<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 + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/V4VLxwe57l">pic.twitter.com/V4VLxwe57l</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1619245787208380416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Jarrell Brantley continued his hot form for New Zealand with another 18 points and five rebounds with Loe finishing with 15 points and six boards on 5/7 shooting.

Rayan Rupert added 12 points for the Breakers, Dererk Pardon 11 points and eight rebounds, Barry Brown Jr 11 points and four assists, and Izayah Le'afa nine points and five rebounds.

Breakers coach Mody Maor was understandably emotional about locking in a playoff spot.

"The 16 wins has been up on my board for a very long time," Maor said.

"It was the No. 1 goal and I'm happy we accomplished, we're onto the next one now. I keep getting asked if I'm having fun and I told myself when we get to 16, I'll have fun for a little bit and I'll enjoy it. Then tomorrow I'll go back to regular."

Xavier Rathan-Mayes ended up with 15 points and seven rebounds for Melbourne with Rayjon Tucker contributing 14 points and six boards, and Chris Goulding 11 points and three rebounds.

United coach Dean Vickerman couldn’t fault his team's effort, but ultimately the Breakers' defence got the better of them.

"To me it was their defence and they turned it up to another level, and were still aggressive in their coverage but got out of it a little quicker," Vickerman said. 

"That made us pick the basketball up and we weren’t able to move it the way we wanted to move it. It just created turnover situations and we couldn’t get quality shots for CG and the ball movement that we saw was better in the first half. 

"Credit to Mody and his staff, they do a great job with their physicality and when we got into hand off action, at times they blew it up with their bodies were really good at it. 

"They've got all their pieces back and we just went on a run of five wins on the road with some pieces missing, and had the biggest piece missing tonight with Shea (Ili). Winning that many on the road and trying to keep doing it is a difficult task against a quality team like that, but proud of what we did."

Melbourne got off to a strong start including an early Rayjon Tucker flying dunk on the alley-oop pass from Xavier Rathan-Mayes helping them soon lead 6-1 and causing Mody Maor to call an early timeout.

Neither team really got going in the opening quarter but by the end of it Melbourne led 19-10 with Tucker and Rathan-Mayes combining for the last five points.

However, between the two teams they went from beyond the arc with seven turnovers for the opening term but United were on top shooting 9/17 overall to New Zealand's 4/18.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">?? ?????????? finish off the alley-oop<br>?? The clever cut back<br><br>Rayjon Tucker is UNSTOPPABLE above the rim tonight - he&#39;s up to 7 points now ?‍?<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 + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/F885LGGzmQ">pic.twitter.com/F885LGGzmQ</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1619228910864195584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Breakers only had 12 points on the board in the first 12 minutes of the game and needed to find a spark, and it turned out Rob Loe rolling to the basket provided exactly that. He worked well in the pick-and-roll with Will McDowel-White especially to score eight straight points for the Breakers to bring them back into the contest.

Melbourne did pull away again to lead by 11 heading towards half-time with Chris Goulding and Rathan-Mayes hitting the first two three-pointers of the game, but New Zealand finished well with the last eight points of the half.

That included their first triple thanks to Jarrell Brantley and it cut Melbourne's lead to 34-31 at the break.

Melbourne pushed back out to a seven-point lead to start the second half with a Tucker and-one and Rathan-Mayes three-point bomb, but the Breakers worked back into it starting with a Rayan Rupert triple of his own.

Dererk Pardon scored his next team's five points, Barry Brown Jr then next five but Melbourne maintained a five-point edge when Makuach Maluach stepped on briefly and landed one from long-range.

However, the Breakers again finished the quarter strongly with the last eight points capped off by a crafty Brantley bucket on the buzzer to give the home side their first lead of the contest at 58-56.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Brantley gives the Breakers the lead for the first time all game! THAT&#39;S ????? ?<br><br>Don&#39;t miss this ending! Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/ua0fqBG63w">pic.twitter.com/ua0fqBG63w</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1619244641043484673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Breakers were just warming up too. Izayah Le'afa opened the fourth with a three ball, Loe then knocked down two in-a-row and suddenly New Zealand was leading by 13 following two free-throws from Brantley.

Melbourne eventually ended the New Zealand run at 19 straight points with a David Okwera dunk but the damage was done. Brantley nailed another three ball to put the Breakers on top by 16 and from there they went on to secure the six-point win. 

The Breakers have two games ahead in the last round firstly away to the Illawarra Hawks on Thursday and then the Brisbane Bullets on Saturday. United have just the one more game at home to the Adelaide 36ers on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 17

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 80 (Brantley 18, Loe 15, Rupert 12)

MELBOURNE UNITED 74 (Rathan-Mayes 15, Tucker 14, Goulding 11) 

BOX SCORE