Mody Magic: From Bottom of the League to Now Standing Top of NBL

Mody Maor's Sky Sport Breakers delivered yet another standout defensive performance with their offence then finding its groove in the second half on the way to Sunday's 94-62 win at home to the Tasmania JackJumpers.

The Breakers were fresh off a thumping 99-70 win in Adelaide over the highly fancied 36ers on Friday and if you take out last Thursday's 99 points they conceded to the South East Melbourne Phoenix, their defence has been outstanding.It was again the case at Spark Arena on Sunday as they held the JackJumpers to just 25 points in the first half and 62 for the game while limiting them to shooting 33 per cent from the field and 25 per cent from deep along with causing 14 turnovers.

The Breakers have now won six of their past seven games and have conceded just 66.7 points in those wins to sit atop the NBL no matter what happens the rest of Round 5 with a 6-2 record.

While New Zealand had just 33 points themselves to half-time, they did have 31 in the third quarter and then scored the first 10 of the fourth term to blow the game wide open on the way to the 32-point win in front of 3811 fans.

On top of the defensive master class, New Zealand piled on 61 second half points with Barry Brown again leading the charge with 24 points on 9/11 shooting from the field and 4/5 from beyond the arc.

Dererk Pardon was the rock defensively and finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds with Will McDowell-White running the point for 13 points and seven assists.

Jarrell Brantley added 11 points and eight rebounds, Tom Vodanovich 10 points and five boards, Izayah Le'afa seven points, and Rayan Rupert seven points, three assists, three steals and two rebounds.

Breakers coach Mody Maor again praised the character shown by his group after winning on Friday night in Adelaide to back up with such a standout performance.

"What went into that is the human quality that we have in that locker room and the fact that we have one goal, and everybody is committed to it," Maor said. 

"They are working their arses off and we left Adelaide at 4am (Saturday), got delayed 7000 times and landed, and we went straight to the gym. I didn’t need to ask for focus, intensity or anything. They just came in and did the work, and it's showing in a game like this."

Milton Doyle was a virtual lonehand offensively for Tasmania with 22 points and six rebounds.

Jack McVeigh added 11 points and three rebounds, Josh Magette seven points and five boards, and Rashard Kelly six points and seven rebounds despite struggling shooting with 3/14.

JackJumpers coach Scott Roth obviously wasn’t happy with the result after winning four straight, but is relieved October is now over.

"Congratulations to those guys, they've been playing fantastic and you get a big piece of humble pie in this league, and we got our butts handed to us," Roth said.

"It is what it is and we are sitting 4-4, and to me we've had our toughest stretch of the season that's over with in October. At some point it was a little bit of just trying to survive October to get where we are. 

"I'm not satisfied, but I'm quite relieved at least that we are sitting in the position we are because we've had a hell of a month, and our guys have done quite well."

Both defences locked in from the start as expected but the Breakers did score eight straight points early beginning with a Will McDowell-White triple before Dererk Pardon went to work down low.

Josh Magette got Tasmania going with a triple and then Milton Doyle hit two of his own on his way to eight points in the first quarter, but it was a defensive grind with the Breakers leading 17-15 after one.

Despite an early three-pointer from Jarrell Brantley in the second period, points remained tough to come by for both teams. However, New Zealand did go into half-time up by eight with Barry Brown hitting nine of his 11 points in the second term.

It was all about the defence by half-time, though, with the Breakers shooting just 38 per cent and the JackJumpers 30 while New Zealand had 26 rebounds to 21.  Things really opened up offensively in the third quarter and that was to the Breakers' benefit on their home floor. On the back of a triple from Brown and and-one from Pardon, New Zealand went on a 9-0 run made up of a three-point play from McDowell-White and then three balls from Brown and Brantley.

That pushed the lead out to double-figures and it was 14 by three quarter-time on the back of a put back from Next Star Rayan Rupert on the buzzer.

New Zealand clamped down further holding Tasmania scoreless for the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. 

The JackJumpers also didn’t hit a field goal for nine minutes while the Breakers kept rolling including the first 10 points of the final period on the way to the 32-point win just two days after hammering the Sixers in Adelaide by 29.

The Breakers will now have a seven-day break before also hosting the Sydney Kings at Spark Arena next Sunday. The JackJumpers will head to Perth to take on the Wildcats on Thursday before heading straight back home to host the Brisbane Bullets on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 5

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 94 (Brown 24, Pardon 15, McDowell-White 13)

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 62 (Doyle 22, McVeigh 11, Magette 7) 

BOX SCORE