Kirk Penney and Joe Ingles
The New Zealand Breakers held off a fired up Crazy John's South Dragons side with cool execution in the final seconds, securing a tense 107-104 win at the North Shore Events Centre on Thursday night.
The typically dogged Dragons refused to lie down in Auckland and, spurred along by inspirational playing-coach Shane Heal, fought back from an outstanding Breakers third quarter and 14-point deficit to trail by only one point in the last minute.
But desperation on defence and calm free-throw shooting from veteran Phill Jones saw the home side hold its nerve and the lead to come away with its sixth home win of the campaign.
A vastly improved team rebounding performance was the key to New Zealand breaking its three-match hoodoo versus the Dragons, the home side winning that battle narrowly 48-45.
Breakers forwards Oscar Forman and Mika Vukona were particularly impressive grabbing 13 and 10 boards, respectively, to accompany their scores of 17 and seven.
But once again the New Zealanders' habit of slow starts hurt them early as the Dragons jumped out to a 6-1 lead after two minutes and had extended the gap to eight points after five.
Dragons guard Joe Ingles was sticking to Breakers No.1 scoring option Kirk Penney like glue and was on-song offensively too, sinking three sharp field goals within the opening five minutes.
While home side forwards Tony Ronaldson and Vukona had cold hands early, the Dragons were struggling from outside the arc shooting only 1-of-4 in the first period.
With the introduction of Jones after five minutes came the attacking spark for New Zealand, as the locals reeled in the Dragons to trail 23-25 at the end of the first quarter.
The Dragons gave up back-to-back turnovers in the opening exchanges of the second quarter and Ronaldson capitalised on the second opportunity for New Zealand's first lead at 29-27, before promptly adding his first three with the next home attack.
In the sixth minute, a sweet fake-and-spin combo from Vukona saw him drive past Hendrix to slam home a dunk, delighting the crowd.
Vukona then won a precious offensive rebound and Paora Winitana opened his three-point account as the Breakers put together their first hot streak to move out to a 46-36 lead.
With three remaining, Vukona was on rebounding fire at both ends, following up a flying put-back with an athletic defensive rebound. The Dragons were starting to look ragged as Bakari Hendrix went to the bench with his fourth personal foul (51-38).
Key to the home side's second-quarter burst was a dramatically improved rebounding count, ahead 24-23 on the boards at the main break after trailing 14-11 after the opening stanza.
Half-time saw the Breakers up 58-44, Penney with 11 and Forman nine rebounds, while for the Dragons Ingles was on 14 points and Hendrix had 10.
Late in the third Dragons magician Heal showed the North Shore crowd one of his signature magic tricks with a brilliant behind-the-back pass at pace that found Jacob Holmes in space at the top of the arc, and the former Sixer duly drained the three.
With 30 seconds showing the stalwart guard drained a sweet three of his own under close attention from Jones and then another immediately after a misdirected Ryan Kersten pass.
At the end of the third the Dragons had clawed 10 points back to trail 74-80.
Hendrix made trips to the free-throw line on consecutive possessions and added four unanswered points to bring the Dragons to within three at 91-88 with four minutes left in the game.
Vukona and Paul Henare came up with two crucial clutch plays, Vukona scrambling a pass off the floor for Penney to score two and Henare making a flying block on an open Heal, denying the three-point shot.
Things were getting tight as the Breakers missed two straight field goals and with thirty seconds left another Heal bomb made it 103-101.
Jones then added one from the line before desperate home defence forced a turnover and Jones coolly sank two free-throws as he was fouled with nine seconds on the clock.
Time-out was called and from the resulting set-play Cortez Groves added three to bring the score back within two with five seconds left.
The Dragons pressed hard, double-teaming Penney who somehow got a pass away to Forman who then fittingly ended the match by soaking up the clock, taking the foul and adding one-of-two from the line for the three-point win.
The Breakers' (9-6) next assignment sees the top-of-the-table Sydney Kings pay a visit to Auckland next Thursday while the Dragons (4-10) have only 48 hours to regroup before facing the Taipans in Cairns on Saturday.
New Zealand Breakers 107 (Penney 24, Jones 18, Forman 17, Ronaldson 17)
Crazy John's South Dragons 104 (Heal 22, Burston 21, Ingles 20)