Breakers beat 36ers in Christchurch

New Zealand Breakers continued to make their return home a winning one with a victory over the Adelaide 36ers in Christchurch on Tuesday night.

The Breakers homecoming was held off until the final few rounds of this season but they made up for lost time with an inspired 29-18 second-term giving them an edge they held for the rest of the game recording a 94-76 win.

Having spent six months based in Australia and playing their first 30 games of #NBL21 away from home, the Breakers finally got to return home and beat the Sydney Kings in Auckland.

While glad to be back in their home country, it's a hectic road show they are taking around New Zealand which continued in New Plymouth against the Kings, and then it was onto the Christchurch Arena on Tuesday night to host the 36ers.

Adelaide had just played their final home games of the season and like New Zealand was out of playoffs contention, but that didn't mean the two teams couldn’t put on a show in front of almost 3000 fans in Christchurch.

Corey Webster again made a game-changing impact off the bench with a team-high 22 points to go with eight assists while shooting a scintillating 8/12 from the floor and 4/7 from three-point land.

Levi Randolph added 17 points and five boards while hitting 5/8 from three-point territory as well for New Zealand with Colton Iverson finishing with 14 points and seven rebounds in a fascinating battle with Daniel Johnson.

Finn Delany continued his fine season with 14 points and six rebounds while William McDowell-White did well as point guard with eight points and eight assists.

Breakers coach Dan Shamir said his side took their chances in the second term when the Sixers focused their defence on stopping shots close to the basket.

"We put together a run in the first half where we started making shots and had the ball moving," Shamir said.

"The 36ers started to pack the paint [in the second term] and we got the right reads, played the right way then Corey came in and things started opening up and we got a lot of good looks."

Sixers captain Daniel Dillon wound back the clock with 22 points and six assists in 34 minutes after taking on a bigger role since Josh Giddey’s departure for the NBA Draft to continue to make a case for him to continue his career beyond this season.

Fellow skipper Daniel Johnson added 18 points with six rebounds while Jack McVeigh put up another 13 points, Tony Crocker nine and Brandon Paul eight.

Sixers coach Conner Henry said his side couldn’t force the Breakers into enough misses.

"They wore us down and eventually kept getting into the paint and that led to them making 17 threes," Henry said.

"We just didn’t put in a great physical effort over 40 minutes. We attempted to but we couldn’t get it done. We had a few good looks early, we had some good, quick wide-open threes that we didn’t knock down."

Henry praised Dillon for his work throughout the season and his long minutes in this match while not conceding a turnover.

"He took care of the rock, he tried to get us into our system and was able to get on the rim and push the ball."

Dillon said he was happy to take his chance to play a bigger role.

"It has been a while since I played 34 minutes in an NBL game," Dillon said.

"I was trying to distribute the ball a but most of the time they were denying Tony Crocker and BP [Brandon Paul] so that opened up gaps for me to get to the basket. I was just trying to take advantage of my minutes and play hard."

The Breakers also had some of their young talent take centre stage with Kyrin Galloway throwing down a powerful one-hand dunk over the Adelaide defence in the third-term and young guard Isaac Davidson knocked down a three late in contest.

The Breakers shot 17/35 from the three-point line, well ahead of the Sixers who shot 6/23 while the home side also win bench scoring, aided by Corey Webster, with a 36-15 edge.

Webster said he was happy to help his side score a win back in their home country. He also praised Galloway’s dunk and he encouraged the young big man to keep attacking the basket.

"It was just a great team performance with our screeners getting us open, we moved the ball well, got good shots and knocked them down for the most part," Webster said.

"I just hit a couple of early ones, was feeling good and took what the defence gave me. That was a great dunk, Kyrin is a very athletic player and when he gets into his stride and leap he can get up. Hopefully he can keep getting himself into the right positions to catch and dunk, he will be tough."

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 19

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 94 (C Webster 22, Randolph 17, Delany 14, Iverson 14)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 76 (Dillon 22, Johnson 18, McVeigh 13) 

BOX SCORE