Brown Jr Shoots Breakers into Championship Series

Precious little separated the two teams in a hotly contested Playoffs Series but an offensive explosion from Barry Brown Jr has inspired the New Zealand Breakers to beat the Tasmania JackJumpers 92-77 in Game 3 and reach the Championship Series.

With two such defensively minded and physical teams doing battle, it was never going to be a high-scoring or offensive flowing series which meant that a performance like Brown delivered on Sunday at Spark Arena ultimately proved the difference.

The Breakers dominated Game 1 also on their home floor 88-68 but showing their trademark grit, the JackJumpers were too strong on Thursday night in Game 2 winning 89-78 to force the decider back in Auckland on Sunday.

With the Sydney Kings awaiting the winner in the Championship Series, Tasmania came out on fire looking to get there for a second straight season. The JackJumpers raced out to a 13-2 lead but the game changed once Brown hit the floor.

He would end up delivering 15 points in the first half to lead the Breakers to a seven-point half-time lead and went on with the job. With the game still on the line with just a five-point margin with five minutes to play, Brown would score 11 of New Zealand's next 13 points to lead them to the 15-point win.

The Breakers will now take part in their first Championship Series since 2016 in an attempt to win a fifth championship with the battles with the Kings to begin after the FIBA break next week.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Barry Brown Jr just knows how to clutch up ?<br><br>2??8?? points to his name!<br><br>Watch live and free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies ? <a href="https://t.co/OSo71KFHJH">pic.twitter.com/OSo71KFHJH</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1627201388752306176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Brown finished the game with 32 points, four rebounds and three steals on 10/16 shooting from the floor, 2/2 from deep and 10/10 at the line. As a team, New Zealand went 24/24 from the free-throw line.

Dererk Pardon added 15 points and 13 rebounds, Jarrell Brantley 14 points and seven boards, Rob Loe 11 points and eight rebounds, and Izayah Le'afa 10 points, three rebounds and three steals.

Breakers coach Mody Maor could a deep breath to enjoy the achievement afterwards.

"I'm grateful to each and every one of my partners - the coaching staff, performance, management, players, family," Maor said. 

"I'm very happy and proud and I'll stay happy and proud today, and get to work tomorrow."

It was a second straight season upon entering the league for the JackJumpers to be tremendously proud of to be one game away from reaching a second Championship Series.

Jack McVeigh ended up top-scoring with 22 points and eight rebounds with Rashard Kelly contributing 16 points and three boards, and Milton Doyle 12 points, four rebounds, four steals and three assists.

Once more development player Sean Macdonald started in the absence of Josh Magette, and delivered 14 points and three rebounds.

JackJumpers coach Scott Roth couldn’t be prouder of what the whole club has achieved again this season.

"It's been maybe a better year than last year. We didn’t get to the Grand Final, but our guys have just been fantastic all season," Roth said. 

"To finish fourth in this type of league again that's quite tough and win a playoff game to get in, and be where we're at, I'm super proud of our group and our effort, and our organisation. 

"We've had a lot of good milestones this year, our brand continues to be built and we continue to defend the island. It's our second year and to be in this position is quite humbling but it's also very excited for what we have and what we have to do."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sean Macdonald is ??????? the JackJumpers back into this ?‍??<br><br>Watch live and free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies ? <a href="https://t.co/w08ITgfaIL">pic.twitter.com/w08ITgfaIL</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1627199417001598976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Tasmania quickly quietened the enthusiastic Spark Arena crowd with a hot start that included scoring 11 straight points to lead 13-2 on the back of a pair of three-pointers from development player Sean Macdonald, and another from Jack McVeigh.

That was a stunning opening from the JackJumpers but the Breakers did respond with their own 8-3 run with Barry Brown Jr coming on to provide that spark.

The Breakers finished the quarter strongly with five quick points to Rob Loe but still Tasmania led 25-21 by quarter-time on 5/7 three-point shooting and by going 57 per cent overall as a team in the opening term.

New Zealand, though, exploded to start the second quarter beginning with a couple of buckets to Brown. Dererk Pardon finished inside and Jarrell Brantley from outside and with 10 straight points the Breakers grabbed a 31-25 advantage.

Milton Doyle briefly steadied the JackJumpers with a three but then Pardon and Brown scored again to extend New Zealand's advantage to seven.

Tasmania wasn’t going away and went on their own 10-3 run to level scores up again but the half of streaks continued. New Zealand closed the half with a 9-2 run to go into the break leading 49-42 on their home floor on the back of 15 points from Brown.

While McVeigh nailed a long ball to start the fourth quarter, New Zealand threatened to take charge by scoring eight of the next 10 points. 

Then when Brown knocked down a three-pointer soon after on the back of a three-point play, he went beyond 20 points and the Breakers were in control leading by 15.

Tasmania needed to respond and did starting with the next seven points including a triple from Rashard Kelly. 

He was just warming up too and would draw a fourth foul on Brantley and the JackJumpers would close the third quarter with a 16-4 run including a late and-one from Kelly to cut the Breakers lead to 67-64 at three quarter-time.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We thought the three point contest was in Salt Lake City? ?<br><br>Watch live and free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies ? <a href="https://t.co/ktoqbUuzZo">pic.twitter.com/ktoqbUuzZo</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1627183050105954306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

New Zealand again started the fourth period on fire with the first seven points courtesy of Pardon, Brantley and Will McDowell-White to push the lead back out to 10.

That put the onus back on the JackJumpers to respond again and they did, and once more it was Macdonald who scored six of their next eight points to bring it back to a five-point game.

However, Brown was proving just too much and when he hit his second three-pointer of the game with 3:42 to play, he had 28 points and the Breakers' lead was out to 12.

The Breakers blew the game open with a 13-2 run with Brown scoring 11 of those points to lead his team to the win and into the Championship Series.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL FINALS – PLAYOFFS SERIES 1, GAME 3

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 92 (Brown Jr 32, Pardon 15, Brantley 14)

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 77 (McVeigh 22, Kelly 16, Macdonald 14) 

BOX SCORE