36ers fall to Breakers in New Zealand

New Zealand Breakers have spoiled Mitch McCarron’s 200^th NBL game milestone, with a 89-83 win against Adelaide 36ers at Trust Arena in Auckland on Sunday.

After a tight tussle for the full 40 minutes, Barry Brown Jnr’s late three-pointer ended the 36ers’ hopes of going 2-0 this round, after a 91-86 victory on Thursday night at John Cain Arena against Melbourne United.

The Breakers won their eighth game of NBL23 and their second of the weekend, after Friday night’s in Launceston 84-76 against Tasmania JackJumpers.

Anthony Drmic opened the scoring with a three-pointer, but Robert Franks picked up two early fouls within first three minutes, which forced head coach CJ Bruton to bring in Deng Acuoth.

Brown Jnr made an instant impact coming off the bench, to give the Breakers their first lead at 10-8.

Kyrin Galloway, rarely used so far in NBL23, was inserted into the contest with great effect, scoring eight straight points as Adelaide built their lead to 21-14.

Head coach CJ Bruton used all 10 players in the opening quarter, when Nick Marshall found Hyrum Harris under the hoop, the 36ers led 25-17 at quarter time.

Galloway continued his great game, throwing down a slam dunk to give Adelaide a double-digit lead.

New Zealand found some spark, causing consecutive turnovers and cutting the 36ers’ lead in half, and forcing Bruton into a time out.

Adelaide’s offense continued to dry up as New Zealand forced their way back into the contest to take a 45-43 lead into half time.

The game turned into an arm wrestle in the third quarter as the Breakers made the most of their opportunities, Tom Abercrombie and Cam Gliddon hitting three-pointers and Dererk Pardon cleaning up the offensive glass to extend their lead to six points.

But Galloway tied scores at 63-63 with his third three-pointer of the night, but New Zealand went into the final 10 minutes leading by two points.

Brown Jnr took started to take over in the final quarter, hitting back-to-back three-pointers to give New Zealand a 76-69 lead with six minutes to go.

But Adelaide responded, and when Franks hit a deep three-pointer, the game was tied at 78-78.

Then Antonius Cleveland connected in traffic to give Adelaide back the lead 80-78.

Yet, Adelaide were unable to convert down the stretch and stop the Brown Jnr show.

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 89 (Brown Jnr 22, PArdon 19, Brantley 17) def ADELAIDE 36ERS 83 (Cleveland 17, Franks 14, Galloway 13) at Trusts Arena, Auckland.

BOX SCORE