Breakers show bite to beat JackJumpers

The New Zealand Breakers scored 18 straight points either side of quarter-time and then remained in control through the second half for their second win of the NBL season, beating the Tasmania JackJumpers 82-65.

The JackJumpers arrived at Auckland's Spark Arena at 4-2 with five of those six matches on the road and started strongly with an early 14-6 lead against the bottom placed Breakers.

New Zealand was able to turn things around and outscored Tasmania 76-51 the rest of the way which included scoring the last six points of the first quarter, and the first 12 of the second.

The JackJumpers didn’t score for almost six minutes of that second quarter with the Breakers leading 40-31 at the half despite missing all 13 of their three-point attempts.

They did take 18 extra shot attempts, though, having forced Tasmania into eight turnovers and while collecting 11 offensive rebounds, and then the Breakers kept the momentum going in the second half.

The New Zealand lead got out to 21 by three quarter-time and even though Ben Ayre hit three triples to keep Tasmania in touch in the fourth term, he soon left frustrated after fouling out.

The JackJumpers did fight it out as expected but the Breakers had done enough for the 17-point win to improve to 2-5 on the back of 25 more shot attempts with 19 offensive rebounds and just the two turnovers to overcome shooting 2/26 from three.

Superstar guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright finished with 21 points and six assists in the win with under-pressure import Izaiah Brockington more aggressive for 17 points and six rebounds.

Sam Mennenga also battled hard down low for 12 points and eight rebounds with Next Star Karim Lopez adding nine points and seven boards.

Tasmania now have nine days before playing again on the road to Sydney having shot just 39 per cent from the field with 5/19 from downtown with captain Will Magnay top-scoring with 14 points to go with 12 rebounds.

Bryce Hamilton added 13 points, five rebounds and three assists, Ben Ayre 11 points, and Josh Bannan 10 points and eight boards.

Tasmania arrived fresh off beating Sydney on Wednesday and started strongly opening up a 14-6 advantage on the back of seven straight points including a three ball to Bryce Hamilton.

New Zealand were able to steady, though, and closed out the rest of the first quarter outscoring Tasmania 14 points to four including scoring the last six points to be leading 20-18.

The Breakers then kept that momentum rolling with a dominant start to the second quarter by scoring the first 12 points courtesy of Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Max Darling, Sam Mennenga and Carlin Davison.

That saw New Zealand open up a 32-18 lead with the JackJumpers also missing four free-throw attempts and not scoring until almost six minutes into the quarter when Hamilton stopped the rot.

The JackJumpers then did outscore the Breakers 11-8 from there and despite New Zealand's dominance for about a 10-minute stretch of play, they were only leading 40-31 by the half-time break.

New Zealand pushed back out to a double-figure lead with the first four points of the second half before another 10-0 run including their first two three-pointers of the game saw their lead get out to 19.

That turned into a 21-point advantage for the home team by three quarter-time and the JackJumpers did keep fighting it out including Ben Ayre hitting three triples before fouling out.

Nick Marshall then scored eight points in the final term too but New Zealand were never seriously threatened and went on to win by 17.

The Breakers have the short turnaround to facing Melbourne United on the road on Sunday while the JackJumpers are next in action next Sunday with another away clash against the Sydney Kings.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2025/26

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 82 (Jackson-Cartwright 21, Brockington 17, Mennenga 12)

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 65 (Magnay 14, Hamilton 13, Ayre 11)

BOX SCORE