Dillon stars in Christchurch for 36ers

Daniel Dillon continues to show for the Adelaide 36ers that he has plenty of basketball still in his future after another standout performance against the New Zealand Breakers in Christchurch on Tuesday night.

The 36ers played their final two home games of the 2021 NBL season at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre across the weekend, and they started their road run to finish the campaign across the ditch against the Breakers.

The Sixers took on New Zealand at Christchurch Arena and while there were some bright aspects of the game again for Adelaide, the Breakers ended up being in control for a lot of the contest and went on to record the 94-76 victory.

The Breakers were up three by quarter-time as they continue to take roadshow around New Zealand having now been allowed to go home having spent the previous six months in Australia where they played their first 30 games of the season.

They were able to break the game open further in the second term to head into half-time leading 47-32. The Sixers did show some fight during the third quarter and a 5-0 run to close the term from Jack McVeigh and Tony Crocker closed the gap to 11 three quarter-time.

Crocker then nailed another jumper to start the fourth and Adelaide was back within nine, but they couldn’t get any closer away from home and the Breakers would go on to record the 18-point victory.

Daniel Dillon is a captain of the 36ers this season, he's a past NBL championship winner and the 35-year-old has patiently bided his time for court time so far in #NBL21, and sitting behind Josh Giddey and you can easily understand why he might not have played as much as he hoped.

Not once, though, has he let that stop him being a tremendous team man and leader, and now he is fully grasping his opportunity to play a bigger role on the court as the starting point guard in the absence of Giddey.

The 35-year-old had two strong showings in the last two home games on the weekend against Illawarra and Perth, and he carried that form over with him to Christchurch on Tuesday night.

Dillon finished the game as the standout performer from the 36ers with 22 points, six assists and three rebounds – and importantly zero turnovers while shooting 9/12 from the field.

"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 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."

Fellow Adelaide captain Daniel Johnson also finished with 18 points and six rebounds with Jack McVeigh contributing 13 points, and Tony Crocker nine points, five rebounds and two assists.

Brandon Paul put up eight points and seven rebounds for the 36ers, Keanu Pinder four points, four blocks, seven rebounds and three assists, and Sunday Dech two points, a rebound and an assist.

Adelaide coach Conner Henry just felt that simply his team couldn’t slow the Breakers' scoring enough but he was full of praise for what Dillon is providing having been on limited minutes all season.

"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. 

"He (Dillon) 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."

The Sixers now prepare to take on the Illawarra Hawks in Wollongong on Sunday before finishing the season in Melbourne against United on Sunday June 6.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 19

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

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

BOX SCORE