New Zealand have taken a huge step toward clinching the NBL minor premiership after scoring a thrilling 101-99 overtime away win over closest challenger Perth on Sunday.
The victory at Challenge Stadium has given the defending champion Breakers (18-6) a 2-1 season head-to-head split over Perth (16-9), which will prove a tie-breaker should the teams finish the regular season with the same record.
Perth led by 12 in the third quarter, and were up by eight with just over seven and a half minutes to go, but couldn’t hold out the Breakers.
Mika Vukona sent the game into overtime with a basket inside the last ten seconds and the Breakers led 98-94 with less than a minute and a half of overtime left.
Perth veteran Shawn Redhage scored five straight points to give his team a one-point lead with just over a minute remaining.
Gary Wilkinson scored the go-ahead basket for the Breakers with just under 30 seconds to go and made a free throw in the last five seconds after Redhage and Matthew Knight missed shots for Perth.
Perth guard Kevin Lisch scored a match high 27 points, 13 of them in a three-minute burst just before halftime.
Guard Cedric Jackson tallied 23 for NZ and Wilkinson 18.
Gold Coast (15-9) consolidated third spot with two wins in the round.
They followed up a 94-77 away win over Cairns (14-11) in which guard Adris Deleon scored 23 with a 90-83 home victory over Sydney (9-16 ) on Sunday.
They had a 14-point last quarter lead reduced to five inside the last 30 seconds.
Playing without injured captain Julian Khazzouh, Sydney outscored the Blaze in three of the four quarters but were outplayed 29-10 in the third quarter in which Gold Coast scored 13 straight points.
Deleon scored all but two of the points in that streak and finished with 33 for the game, while Ben Madgen notched 30 for Sydney, who were coming off a 66-61 home loss to Melbourne.
Townsville (14-11) stayed in the hunt for a top four spot with a 67-64 home win over Melbourne (11-15), with Crocs guard Peter Crawford marking his 400th NBL appearance with a team-high 14 points.
Adelaide (8-16) moved two wins of clear of Wollongong (6-18) in the wooden spoon battle after a 77-73 home win over the Hawks.