Brown Bank Seals Breakers Win Over 36ers

Barry Brown Jr proved the difference as the New Zealand Breakers star caught fire in the fourth quarter to lead his team to a second win in Round 7, beating the Adelaide 36ers 89-83 at The Trusts Arena on Sunday.

The Breakers did earn a hard fought win in Launceston over the Tasmania JackJumpers on Friday night, but getting back to Auckland was anything but easy.

They didn’t arrive until 3am Sunday morning ahead of hosting a Sixers team attempting to back up beating Melbourne United on Thursday, and it was a tight contest most of the way.

The Breakers were clinging to a two-point lead at three quarter-time and up to that point Brown had just eight points on 2/11 shooting and was having a tough afternoon.

That soon changed when he scored nine of the Breakers' first 11 points of the fourth quarter including knocking down a pair of three-pointers.

Then in the final minute with the shot clock expiring, he banked in the clinching three with New Zealand eventually winning by six to improve to 8-3 on the season.

Brown ended the game with 22 points on 4/9 three-point shooting with Dererk Pardon just a beast at both ends for 19 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and three steals on 7/8 field goal shooting and hitting 5/6 at the line.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BANK ?<br><br>Barry Brown Jr might have just iced this game ??<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live &amp; free ? 10 Peach &amp; 10play | Live on ESPN via Kayo &amp; Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/RqaWkgX2cD">pic.twitter.com/RqaWkgX2cD</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1594192814278967297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Will McDowell-White added 13 points and seven assists with Jarrell Brantley scoring 17 points to go with 10 rebounds and two steals.

After a horror travel experience getting to Launceston for Friday's game and then yet another delayed return to Auckland just hours before tip-off, Breakers coach Mody Maor couldn’t hide his admiration of his team.

"It took everything we had. We got home at 3am, we were in the gym watching film at 1.30," Maor said.

"This is not how you come in to perform and it's really important for us to play well in front of our fans. We really want to buy back the confidence in what the Breakers are, and having a packed house was great to see. 

"For us to keep doing this, we need to be able to come in and play great basketball games. Adelaide were in New Zealand 48 hours before we were so we needed our C game to beat their A game and I'm very proud of what we did."

The Sixers go 1-1 this weekend on the road to be 4-5 on the season with Antonius Cleveland top-scoring with 17 points and six assists.

Robert Franks had 14 points and four rebounds for Adelaide, Kyrin Galloway a breakout performance with 13 points on a perfect 5/5 shooting, and Sunday Dech nine points.

Mitch McCarron also had eight points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals in the 200th game of his NBL career that started in Cairns, before he won a championship in Melbourne and is now in his second season in Adelaide.

Sixers coach CJ Bruton has been glad to see improvements this week, but know he needs more still.

"I thought we did a pretty good job and we are taking some strides and making some improvements in areas that we needed to improve on," Bruton said.

"Just watching how our group is coming together, you've seen different patches of longer runs with different guys stepping up when we've had some of our main guys resting. We've had our bench guys step up from Kai Sotto to Hyrum Harris to Kyrin Galloway, they've all contributed when given the time. 

"As any team, you've got to find the right balance of how much to play them and when, which is something I'm still working on but I like the fact that everyone is bringing the energy every single day. That's picked up and we need to continue to make strides so we can continue to get better as the season goes on."

Anthony Drmic has been thriving in Adelaide's line-up without Craig Randall and he started off with a three in Auckland before Antonius Cleveland added a three-point play to give the Sixers a 6-2 edge early.

The 36ers maintained an advantage with a Sunday Dech triple midway through the first quarter before Will McDowell-White responded in kind.

It was then Kyrin Galloway's time to shine in his best patch with Adelaide against his former team. He hit two threes on his own personal 8-0 run which helped the Sixers take a 25-17 lead into quarter-time.

Galloway then scored first to start the second term too to put Adelaide up 10. The lead was still nine after an and-one from Drmic, but then the Breakers steadied the ship and worked back into it.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">William McDowell-White put the sauce on that ?<br><br>Live &amp; free ? 10 Peach &amp; 10play | Live on ESPN via Kayo &amp; Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/SmSP6irY5d">pic.twitter.com/SmSP6irY5d</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1594168452700286976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

New Zealand went on an 11-0 run that included a three-point play from Will McDowell-White before Barry Brown Jr hit the corner triple to put the home team up four.

Adelaide hit back with an offensive rebound and putback from Sunday Dech, but then Dererk Pardon imposed himself up the other end with his own offensive board and score.

The Breakers stretched their lead to six following threes from Cam Gliddon and McDowell-White, but Adelaide cut the deficit to two at the break including a spectacular save from 200-gamer Mitch McCarron for Cleveland to score just before the buzzer.

New Zealand opened up the second half strongly with three-pointers to Tom Abercrombie and Jarrell Brandtley, but the Sixers responded and Robert Franks got rolling after a quiet first half to tie scores back up.

The Breakers were able to push back out to a five-point lead including Gliddon making his second three of the game, but the Sixers stayed in touch and it was Galloway knocking down a third three-pointer which helped cut New Zealand's lead to 65-63 by three quarter-time.

It was then Barry Brown Jr who lit it up early in the fourth quarter for New Zealand with a bucket, two triples and a free-throw to put his team up seven.

Adelaide wasn’t going away, though, and went on a 9-0 run with Cleveland hitting two baskets, Franks draining a three and Hyrum Harris scoring to see the visitors back up two.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Robert Franks has tied this up ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live &amp; free ? 10 Peach &amp; 10play | Live on ESPN via Kayo &amp; Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/Rt7Jmp2VEH">pic.twitter.com/Rt7Jmp2VEH</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1594189477404061698?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The rollercoaster ride continued with the Breakers then hitting the next six points including an inspirational steal from Pardon who took the ball up and got fouled.

Brown then banked in the biggest shot of the game for his third three of the quarter to put the Breakers up six with 50 seconds to go before they went on to win by six.

The Sixers now head to Perth to take on their old foes the Wildcats on Thursday night while the Breakers head to Far North Queensland to play the Cairns Taipans on Friday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 7

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 89 (Brown Jr 22, Pardon 19, Brantley 17)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 83 (Cleveland 17, Franks 14, Galloway 13) 

BOX SCORE