Breakers too strong for Illawarra Hawks in NBLTe KāeaAs Christmas looms and many begin their holidays, the Breakers are not resting on their laurels, training hard in their pursuit of making the NBL playoffs. The New Zealand Breakers proved too strong for the Illawarra Hawks as they recorded a 96-81 NBL road victory on Saturday night. Breakers duo Shawn Long (24 points, 11 rebounds, five blocks) and Tai Wesley (23 points, seven rebounds) were dominant figures under the basket as New Zealand outscored Illawarra 48-36 in the paint. READ MORE:* Shawn Long, Tai Wesley combine to power NZ Breakers past Illawarra Hawks* 'Agent 97' Jarrad Weeks comes in from the cold to fire up Breakers' NBL season* Shawn Long comes up big as NZ Breakers make short work of Illawarra Hawks"For our group, this is probably what we expected game after game," Breakers coach Kevin Braswell said, after his side controlled the contest from start to finish. Illawarra will close out their NBL season with an away clash in New Zealand on Thursday night with the Breakers playing the Bullets in Brisbane on Saturday for their final game.

Source: Stuff February 09, 2019 11:48 UTC