The Breakers used a 16-4 run to close out the third quarter and a pair of 20-plus point games from Kirk Penney and Gary Wilkinson to propel them to a 94-88 win over the Cairns Taipans in their top-of-the-standings Australian NBL game at the North Shore Events Centre last night.

Trailing 61-52 after a short scoring burst from the red-hot Taipans and a timeout, the Breakers limited Cairns to rushed one-shot possessions and were able to fill it up themselves in front of a sell-out crowd on Auckland's North Shore. They drew level at 63-63 for the first time since 2-2 when Kevin Braswell hit a jumper with 1:04 remaining in the third and then taking the lead for good as Braswell ended the period with a three, leading 68-65.

Although the Breakers never relinguised the lead in the fourth quarter - two points was the closest the Taipans could get - it was not an easy ride home.

The Taipans, with two ex-Breakers on their roster in Phill Jones and recently signed Lindsay Tait, were able to make the game interesting in the final minute when it looked like the home side had put the game, and import Ron Dorsey got two quality three-point looks that could have closed the lead to two points.

They needed the playmaking of Penney. He drained a three, set up Wilkinson for a pair of easy baskets and hit a fade-away jumper from the left corner as the shot-clock expired early in the period. They needed the persistent defence of Wilkinson, Dillon Boucher and Tom Abercrombie at the other end. They needed the clutch play of Braswell, who hit consecutive baskets on a drive to the cup and a step-back off-the-dribble three inside the final two minutes.

And they needed solid free-throw shooting to close out the win, which took the Breakers to a 12-3 record and a two-game lead of the second-placed Taipans, who dropped to 9-4 with the loss.

It had been 35 days since the Breakers' last home game on December 9 - a 93-79 win over these same Taipans - and the Auckland public turned out en masse on the promise of cheap tickets, filling the NSEC with 4000-plus fans.

The result ended Cairns' three-game winning streak and added onto two Breakers streaks against the Taipans, now four straight wins overall and their fifth straight win at NSEC over the Snakes.

Penney finished with a game-high 24 points (7/18FG, 5/12 3pt, 5/8FT), six rebounds and four assists, while Wilkinson overcame a slow first half, which saw him miss several close-range attempts, to score 22 points (6/13FG, 1/3 3pt, 9/11FT). CJ Bruton poured in 13 points and Braswell ended with 12 points and a game-high eight assists as the Breakers had 23 assists as a team on 30 made field-goals. Abercrombie, who managed only five points, pulled down 10 rebounds.

Import Ron Dorsey lead the Taipans, who just 38 percent from the field after a hot first quarter, with 20 points and was backed up by 14 points from Alex Loughton and Ayinde Ubaka.

The story of the first half for the Breakers was shooting percentage, just a lowly 31 percent, a number that was much worse in the first quarter when the slow-starting home team went 6-of-20 from the field. Contrastingly, the Taipans found success early with players cutting directly to the basket, finding space in the interior of the Breakers' defence and leading to easy and open looks.

The fact Andrej Lemanis' squad managed to finish the game shooting 45 percent from the field and 42 percent on threes after the poor start is testament to the team's patience and bench depth.

Wilkinson threw down a dunk in the lane off an in-bounds play as time expired in the first half, keeping the Breakers within range.

Wilkinson's late hustle and a more resolute defence saw the Breakers close on the second-placed Taipans, who lead by as many as 13 points in the second period. He had 10 points, along with shooting guard Penney at the half, while Dorsey lead Cairns with 10 points, Loughton with nine.

After Lemanis gave his players an explitive-laced rev-up during a timeout with three minutes remaining in the half, the Breakers were able to lock-down on defence and saw the deficit quickly shrink from 13 points to seven in the closing minutes.

Cairns set the tone from the first period in the opening seconds, Ubaka penetrating and lobbing an alley-oop pass for Dorsey to drop the hammer on the game's first possession. Loughton, Ubaka and Daniel Dillon all hit on threes as the visitors jumped out to a 12-6 lead after four minutes.

The Breakers play next at home against the 5-9 Adelaide 36ers on Thursday night, while the Taipans head home to welcome the Melbourne Tigers to Cairns on Saturday night.

NZ Breakers 94 (Kirk Penney 24, Gary Wilkinson 22, CJ Bruton 13, Kevin Braswell 12) Cairns Taipans 88 (Ron Dorsey 20, Alex Loughton 14, Ayinde Ubaka 14, Ian Crosswhite 10)
1Q: 19-23, HT: 35-43, 3Q: 68-65