Breakers winning run ends at home to Wildcats

Corey Webster has delivered plenty of match-winning performances for the Sky Sport Breakers at Spark Arena over the years, unfortunately he produced another against his old team for the Perth Wildcats on Saturday night.

The Breakers came into the contest with their old foes the form team of the NBL having won five straight matches to remain clear on top of the table on the back of Thursday night's supremely impressive win against the South East Melbourne Phoenix in Christchurch.

New Zealand were then in control for the first half of the game leading by as much as 11 points, but the Wildcats fired up after the break led by Webster with 16 of his 26 points coming in the period.

Perth would go on to lead by 12 late in the piece but the Breakers still made one more run and closed to back within four with a minute to go, but couldn't quite close the deay with the 'Cats ending up winning 92-84.

The loss for New Zealand is their first in six NBL games with Barry Brown Jr top-scoring once more with 27 points.

Dererk Pardon added 13 points and 14 rebounds, Tom Abercrombie 10 points, and Jarrell Brantley nine points despite being limited to 23 minutes with foul trouble.

Izayah Le'afa ended up with seven points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals, Will McDowell-White seven points and nine assists, and Tom Vodanovich six points, two rebounds and two blocks.

Breakers coach Mody Maor just felt his team never got up to the level at any point in the game that they have been playing at.

"We didn’t play our game at all today. Even when we were up, it wasn’t us," Maor said.

"We're a good basketball team, we can be up when we play average too but we never played the way we want to play. 

"There was an air of complacency and at some point it's going to come, and to click, but that's not how this works. It's a good lesson for us."

The Breakers threatened to have the dominance inside coming into the game and that was on show early with Jarrell Brantley and Dererk Pardon helping them to a 7-4 lead which became 10-4 with a triple from Izayah Le'afa.

It was Corey Webster hitting two of Perth's first three baskets in his first ever game against the Breakers, but New Zealand remained on top. Barry Brown Jr made an immediate impact with two and-one plays either side of triples from Tom Vodanovich and Tom Abercrombie.

That put the home team up 21-10 but the 'Cats did finish the quarter better with Bryce Cotton's first two points coming at the foul line after eight and-a-half minutes.

New Zealand still led 27-20 after one with the lead back out to double-figures early in the second term following a three-pointer from Le'afa and three-point play from Pardon.Mitch Norton steadied Perth with a three of his own and then Cotton's first field goal of the game just before half-time turned into a three-point play.

The Breakers were still leading at the half at 47-43 but the Wildcats were in touch and after their rebounding woes, would have been happy to lead that count at the break and to have scored seven second chance points.

The Breakers threatened to pull away again to start the second half with Pardon finishing the alley-oop pass from Brown, but then it was all the Wildcats and Webster lit it up like he did so many times in a Breakers singlet previously.

After six straight points to Cotton, it became the Webster show beginning with a three. He would then score the next nine points for Perth hitting tough jumper after tough jumper.

He helped the 'Cats lead 73-66 at three quarter-time after Norton hit a buzzer-beating triple and then it was Manek who had a remarkable streak to open the fourth.

The North Carolina alum hit three tough threes including a dagger with just over five minutes to go in Abercrombie's face. He threw down a dunk three minutes later to keep the lead at 12, but the Breakers made one more run.

Abercrombie and Brown hit threes before Pardon scored inside, but then it was a tough trademark fadeaway jumper from Webster that sealed the Wildcats' eight-point win.

The Breakers remain at home to host the Sydney Kings to open Round 10 on Thursday back at Spark Arena. 

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 9

SKY SPORT BREAKERS 84 (Brown Jr 27, Pardon 13, Abercrombie 10)

PERTH WILDCATS 92 (Webster 26, Manek 18, Cotton 17) 

BOX SCORE