The Breakers were at their hot-and-cold best in beating Townsville 88-74 at Vector Arena tonight, illustrating their title credentials with a potentially defining comeback.
It seemed as if the Breakers had brought their recent form slide to Vector Arena, with the Crocs leading by as many as 23 points at one stage, but the Breakers stormed back in the second half to secure a precious win and put their title charge back on track.
It was a win that didn't seem possible for much of the first half. Nothing was going right for the Breakers at the offensive end and the Crocs were draining shots with regularity. The 4500 fans at Vector were subdued, the players' shoulders were slumping and a third straight loss looked on the cards.
But momentum is a fickle beast, a lesson learned by the Crocs the hard way.
The Breakers of the last week showed up during a horror first quarter. The North Shore-based club still appeared to be getting their eye in at the new arena but Townsville were having no such problems, jumping out to a 33-14 lead following the first period.
They came into the game with a known threat from deep, but that didn't stop the Breakers from continually leaving the Crocs' shooters open on the perimeter. Townsville made them pay, successfully hitting six of their first eight attempts from beyond the arc, with forward Jacob Holmes proving particularly deadly with a game-high 21 points.
Assistant coach Dean Vickerman called the quarter their worst in his five years at the Breakers, and it couldn't have come at a worse time. "Coming off two losses, there could have been a lot of doubt when we got down that margin but there wasn't,'' he said. "There was a group that wasn't pointing fingers at each other, there was a group that said, `hey, we've got to make some adjustments here'.''
Those adjustments began in the final two minutes of the second quarter when the home side finally began to show signs of life. Tom Abercrombie landed a three that sparked a 7-0 run to pull them within 12 at the break and provided a possible _ and much-needed _ momentum shift.
He may not have been able to speak after the game after biting his tongue when playing with his dog, but coach Andrej Lemanis said enough at halftime.
"He challenged everyone to take ownership,'' said guard Cedric Jackson, who ended with 11 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. "He called everybody out [and] pointed at the starting five. He jumped on us... and we took that personally.''
The journey back continued in the second half, with two Daryl Corletto threes bringing the gap down to three. Corletto had started in place of the slumping and hurting Bruton, and contributed 16 points.
During this run, it helped the Breakers' prospects immensely that the Crocs' white-hot shooting had apparently gone cold, with the visitors putting only seven points on the board during the 10-minute stretch either side of halftime.
Vickerman pointed to his team's defensive play as the reason why the Crocs scored only 41 points after the first quarter. "To hold them to 74 after we gave up 33 in the first quarter, it was a great defensive effort.''
The loudest roar of the night came when Abercrombie - who finished with a team-leading 19 points - profited from a Crocs turnover to cap the comeback and give the Breakers their first lead.
The visitors hit back with a buzzer-beating three from Holmes to lead by one at the final intermission, and the back-and-forth scoring continued into the fourth quarter, giving the crowd what looked like a nervous conclusion.
But the Breakers' offensive explosion continued, and a Jackson three gave them an eight-point lead with three minutes left. It was a lead they wouldn't relinquish, and it sent the Breakers back to the top of the NBL ladder with a 6-3 record.
