Against Ridiculous Odds, the Breakers Maintain That Winning Habit

Against all the odds, somehow, the Sky Sport Breakers have won again!

The statistics behind this eighth win of the season take some absorption.

In the last 72 hours, this team has endured 37 hours of travel, three cancelled flights, six hours of delays and 13 hours from tarmac to tip-off.

The return from Launceston's win two days ago was so brutal they only came home 11 hours before tip-off against the Adelaide 36ers at The Trusts Arena who had been resting for 48 hours - and somehow won.

Barry Brown Jr caught fire in the fourth quarter to lead his team to a second win in Round seven, beating the 36ers 89-83 at The Trusts Arena to stay second in the league.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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