Breakers take down Hawks, first away win
- Dave Worsley
- Nov 1
- 2 min read
The New Zealand Breakers have kept up the pressure on to blitz the Illawarra Hawks for their first road win of NBL26 by 42 points.
It had all the makings of a night of the Illawarra Hawks getting their NBL title defence on track but the New Zealand Breakers blew those plans apart with the biggest win of the season, 102-60.
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The Breakers hadn’t played since blowing a 24-point lead at home last Thursday to the Brisbane Bullets but were on a mission to silence the home crowd excited to see Championship Series hero Davo Hickey after an eye injury, and newly arrived import QJ Peterson.
However the visitors shot out of the blocks with the first eight points and then the last six of the first quarter to be leading 31-18.
The big men battle was fascinating with Sam Mennenga having 14 points and five rebounds in the opening half for the Breakers. JaVale McGee had 13 and eight for the Hawks, but the Breakers remained in control leading 52-34 by the half.
The third quarter was then the most dominant 10 minutes of basketball you'll see with the Breakers scoring 27 points themselves to end up leading by 35 while holding Illawarra to 10 points on 4/17 shooting with seven turnovers.
The Breakers cruised to the 42-point win from there to improve to 3-7 with Mennenga finishing with 21 points and 11 rebounds while Rob Baker II played his best game for 19 points on 4/8 three-point shooting.
Karim Lopez also had 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals despite a nasty cut to the face with Izaiah Brockington adding 12 points, and Parker Jackson-Cartwright 11 points and six assists.
Illawarra are now 2-5 with McGee not scoring after half-time to end up with 13 points and 10 rebounds with Tyler Harvey scoring 11 points on 2/11 shooting.
Mennenga converted back-to-back three-point plays and despite a brief Illawarra highlight with a three ball to new import QJ Peterson, the Breakers remained in control leading 31-18 thanks to the last six points of which five came from Parker Jackson-Cartwright.
Despite McGee scoring nine points in the second term for the Hawks, they only had 16 as a team and the Breakers put up another 21 to be well in control leading 53-34 at the break on shooting 48 per cent from the floor to Illawarra's 33.
New Zealand had lost from similar positions twice recently at home to the South East Melbourne Phoenix and Brisbane Bullets, but this time the Breakers were able to build on their dominance.
The Breakers blew the game completely apart scoring 21 of the first 25 points in the third quarter to see that lead balloon to 35 points, and that's where the lead remained by three quarter-time before they completed the 42-point win.
The Breakers will host the Adelaide Sixers next Thursday in Christchurch.
ILLAWARRA HAWKS 60 (JaVale McGee 13, Tyler Harvey 11)
BREAKERS 102 (Sam Mennenga 21, Rob Baker II 19, Karin Lopez 14)
