NZ Breakers clinch NBL second spot with dramatic overtime victory in Brisbane

At Nissan Arena, Brisbane: NZ Breakers 80 (Jarrell Brantley 19, Will McDowell-White 15, Tom Abercrombie 14, Izayah Le’afa 12, Tom Vodanovich 10), Brisbane Bullets 75 (Aron Baynes 17, Tyler Johnson 15, Nathan Sobey 14) after OT. 1Q: 16-18; HT: 36-42; 3Q: 54-54; FT: 71-71.

From the outhouse to the penthouse, the ultimate sporting turnaround had a dramatic finishing flourish in Brisbane on Saturday night as Mody Maor’s New Zealand Breakers sealed, by the skin of their teeth, the all-important second-place finish at the end of the Australian NBL’s regular season.

It was not pretty – in fact, at times it was decidedly ugly – but the Breakers found a way to once again come from behind at halftime to ground out an 80-75 overtime victory over the Brisbane Bullets at a sold-out Nissan Arena, their fifth on the bounce to wrap up the regular season in some style.

The win thrust the Breakers, who went 5-23 last season in a miserable campaign spent entirely on the road, into second spot on the final standings with an 18-10 record. They finished level with the Cairns Taipans, who wrapped up their campaign with a meritorious upset in Perth, but nudged the all-important runnerup spot by virtue of their vastly superior points percentage.

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For their efforts the Kiwi club will progress directly to their semifinals, where they will await the winner of the third v fourth playoff in a best-of-3 series they will hold home advantage for. It will be their first such playoff since they swept the Adelaide 36ers at the final-four stage back in 2015.

They will also get a crucial week, or possibly closer to two, to ready themselves, which will be more than enough time for star guard Barry brown Jr to shake off the hand injury that kept him out of this regular season finale, and which made this game so much tougher.

The Breakers were paced by 19 points, on 7-of-14 shooting, and 5 rebounds from standout import Jarrell Brantley and got an important 14 points (5/11 FG) out of skipper Tom Abercrombie who also chipped in with the biggest defensive play of the game with 16 seconds remaining in OT when he stole the ball off Nathan Sobey with his team up by 3.

The always aggressive Izayah Le’afa added 12 key points (including a pair of triples) off the bench and Will McDowell-White stuffed the statsheet with 15 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 steals, though he did struggle a little shooting the ball on a 5-of-19 night.

Marquee big man Aron Baynes led the Bullets with a solid 17 points (on 6-of-10 shooting) and 6 boards, while former NBA sharpshooter Tyler Johnson chipped in with 15 points on 4-of-13 shooting and Nathan Sobey added 14 at a 4-of-14 clip.

Once again the Breakers had been caught short of the mark through the first two periods, trailing 18-16 after one and 42-36 at the major break as the Bullets had been fuelled by a dozen first-half points from the New Zealand-born Baynes (to go with 3 rebounds and a pair of assists).

It wasn’t quite as bad as Wollongong a couple of nights previous, but it was another flat start by the Kiwi cl;ub, and something coach Maor is going to need to address ahead of the playoffs.

The Breakers had 7 first-half turnovers and were minus-8 in free-throw attempts as they allowed their hosts to go a perfect 12-of-12 from the stripe through the first two periods. Those easy points kept the Queenslanders in the lead, and left the Kiwis looking to make the adjustments after the break.