Basketball New Zealand

Breakers guard Kirk Penney had a game-high 30 points (Photosport)

Jamie Townsend, Sportal
The Harvey Norman NZ Breakers have blown the Cairns Taipans away 100-78 in their HUMMER Championship NBL playoff at the Cairns Convention Centre on Thursday night.

The Breakers produced a superb second half performance to outscore Cairns 55-30.

They were lead by Kirk Penney, who scored a game-high 30 points, and big centre Derrick Alston, who was dominant inside scoring 19 points, taking 12 rebounds as well as adding three blocks and a steal.

The Breakers did the job on the dangerous Snakes duo of Larry Abney and Nathan Jawai who had averaged 40 points between them in their earlier three matches against New Zealand this year. They held Jawai to a paltry four points and Abney to 11.

The Breakers were stung into action by a big Stephen Black three that lit the crowd up early. They followed it up with a 13-2 run as Alston hit six of his eight for the quarter to blow out to an early 15-7 lead.

The Taipans hit back to reduce the lead to one point with seven straight points only to see the Breakers blow it out again. But Cairns scored eight of the final 10 points of the quarter to trail 25-24 at the first break.

A Jared Newson jumper 14 seconds into the quarter gave the Taipans the lead for the first time since the opening moments of the match and the battle proper began.

Both sides traded baskets for the entire quarter with neither side able to get out to more than a two-point lead until a huge Gary Boodnikoff three from the baseline on the buzzer gave the Taipans a 48-45 lead.

Black had the hot hand for the Snakes with 18 points for the half that included four three-pointers while Martin Cattalini had 11 as coach Alan Black used he and Darnell Mee judiciously from the bench.

Alston had 11 points, five boards, a block and a steal to be the most impressive Breaker on court, while Penney had a pair from beyond the arc in his haul of nine.

The visitors opened the third stanza with the most intensity. They turned a four-point deficit into a six-point lead as Penney chipped in with seven quick points and Alston again proved difficult to contain.

A Taipans time-out did little to quell the Breakers run as they extended it to 15-1 to lead by double figures 63-53.

The home team got it back to a two-point deficit before New Zealand finished with the last seven points of the quarter to take a dominant 75-66 lead into the final break.

The Breakers played the final term like seasoned veterans, outmuscling the Taipans and making all the key plays.

With seven minutes to go it was effectively over as they lead by 17.

The Breakers dream season continues as they travel to Brisbane for a place in the semi-final series against the Tigers while the Taipans will rue a season that offered so much, but was ultimately just too disrupted by injuries to key players.

New Zealand Breakers 100 (Kirk Penney 30, Derrick Alston 19, Orien Greene 17)
Cairns Taipans 78 (Stephen Black 20, Martin Cattalini 13, Gary Boodnikoff 13)
@ Cairns Convention Centre, February 21, 2008, Crowd: 4513
Breakers v Taipans Box Score (51KB html)