Sixers Shake Off Hot Breakers to Blitz Second Half

The Adelaide 36ers had to withstand a shooting barrage for the ages in the first half by the New Zealand Breakers but they dominated the second half for the 98-85 Sunday win at Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

Will McDowell-White and Hugo Besson had a simply stunning first half shooting performance to help the Breakers open up a 19-point advantage against the 36ers.

McDowell-White had 22 points and Besson 19 in the first half with the former shooting a perfect 6/6 from downtown while the Frenchman went 5/7 from beyond the arc with the Breakers as a team going at 66 per cent from the floor and 57 per cent from deep.

The Sixers just had no answers at the half but that soon changed after the break. Adelaide turned up its defence and New Zealand's shooting went cold, and the Sixers got rolling to outscore the Breakers 56 to 26 in the second half to record their second win of Round 2 of #NBL22.

Dusty Hannahs might have had a rough start to his life in the NBL, but he has now turned that around and on Sunday he was superb for the 36ers finishing with 25 points and four assists including hitting 4/6 from three-point territory.

Daniel Johnson delivered another 22 points and four rebounds with Todd Withers adding 16 points and four boards, Cam Bairstow 15 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and three assists, and captain Mitch McCarron four points, 13 rebounds and five assists.

Adelaide coach CJ Bruton was glad to see his team dig deep at half-time, regroup and then come out executing much better at both ends of the floor.

"I mean Will McDowell-White and Besson, they can play so I take my hat off to them even though I'm not wearing them," Bruton said.

"They're exciting players, they made plays and made timely shots to keep us at bay. They made us dig deep in ourselves and just have a look at ourselves. 

"Clearly when you get stops you are able to run and create havoc at the end of the floor. We used the ball and move it around very well, and I thought that the guys that had the ball in their hands were able to make better decisions. 

"Clearly our turnover count was low and that contributes to it, but I thought we took advantage of what was in front of us as well."

While neither McDowell-White nor Besson could maintain their first half pace, they still combined for 52 points on the game. McDowell-White had 27 points and seven assists with 7/9 from downtown while Besson had 25 points and five rebounds on 5/10 from deep.

Yanni Wetzell had a strong presence inside too for New Zealand with 20 points and four rebounds on 10/12 shooting.

Breakers coach Dan Shamir lamented his team's inability to find those extra petrol tickets in the second half in what was their second game inside 48 hours this weekend with a short rotation, and missing three key players.

"They were very different halves obviously. We got off to a good start and we also made shots, that's true. But overall I think we kind of controlled what we wanted to control even though they had nine offensive rebounds," Shamir said.

"Generally speaking, we fought in the paint and did our job and then it was a completely different game in the second half. We are missing players so maybe we ran out of gas a little bit, but that's not an excuse ever. The game changed and it slipped from our hands."

Hugo Besson started the game where he left off on Friday against the Phoenix with an early three ball. Dusty Hannahs hit his second NBL three soon after but from there it was all the Breakers.

Will McDowell-White hit a three as part of his seven points during a 10-0 run that saw their lead grow to 20-9, and it was 28-15 on the back of 13 points including a second triple from McDowell-White.

That soon became 33-15 to start the second period thanks to Yanni Wetzell and then another triple from Besson.

While Adelaide tried to work back into the contest including a couple of late triples to Todd Withers, there was no stopping the Breakers with McDowell-White and Besson shooting how they were. 

The pair combined for 41 points on 15/19 shooting and 11/13 from deep with New Zealand up 59-42 on the back of that at the half.

It was a clearly different looking Adelaide outfit coming out of half-time. Humphries hit a quick three and then they would go on a 10-0 run to turn that 17-point half-time deficit into just five.

McDowell-White responded with his seventh three-pointer with Isaac Davidson also connecting for New Zealand to go back up eight, but that was down to only two again at three quarter-time.

Tad Dufelmeier then levelled scores up to start the fourth term, and eventually a Daniel Johnson three ball gave Adelaide a one-point lead. Cam Bairstow connected from deep soon after to stretch the lead and Breakers coach Dan Shamir called for time.

The 36ers continued on with the job from there with Johnson and Hannahs hitting threes before a three-point Hannas play turned that 17-point half-time deficit into a nine-point lead which turned into a 13-point victory. 

The Breakers now head to Wollongong to face the Illawarra Hawks on Friday while the 36ers head to Cairns to take on the Taipans on Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 2

ADELAIDE 36ERS 98 (Hannahs 23, Johnson 22, Withers 16)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 85 (McDowell-White 27, Besson 25, Wetzell 20) 

BOX SCORE