The Townsville Crocodiles finished their year on a high after slaughtering the table-topping NZ Breakers 96-79 at the Townsville Entertainment Centre, while Adelaide, Perth and Cairns were all round 12 Australian NBL winners on New Year's Eve.

The Crocodiles led by 29 points midway through the third-quarter as it was headed towards a New Year's Eve massacre before the Breakers' big guns shot long in the final term to salvage some respectability.

Russell Hinder (18 points), Brad Williamson (16) and Michael Cedar (15) did the damage for the home side while Kevin Braswell (32) was forced to carry the load for the visitors with Gary Wilkinson (15) and Kirk Penney (12) the only others in double-figures.

Boxscore

Meanwhile, the Cairns Taipans ground out a hard fought 60-48 win against the Sydney Kings at the Cairns Convention Centre on Friday night.

The Taipans home court continues to be a difficult place for teams to score points.  They could manage only 55 between them to the half and even with a strong 11-point run late by the Snakes it was a lower differential than the 56-51 victory win by the Taipans over the Crocs two weeks ago.

Ayinde Ubaka led the Taipans with 16 points including two crucial threes down the stretch.  Luke  Martin was at his terrier best for the Kings adding 17 points while Julian Khazzouh grabbed 17 rebounds and 9 points as the Kings (1-13) extended their club record losing streak to 13 games. 

At the Gold Coast Convention Centre, a dominant 63-point first half from the Perth Wildcats proved too much of a mountain for the Gold Coast Blaze to climb despite their best efforts in the second half, with the 'Cats going on to record a 96-93 win on New Year's Eve.

The defending champion Wildcats were on fire in the opening half nailing nine three-pointers on their way to 63 points and a 20-point advantage.

Gold Coast did hit back hard after the break, though, and got to within two points late in the game and appeared to have the momentum with Wildcats' co-captain Shawn Redhage fouled out from the seven-minute mark of the period.

However, two massive blocks from second-game big man Ater Majok on Mark Worthington and some clutch free-throws from Stephen Weigh was enough to see the Wildcats win their fifth straight game of the season, and fifth on the road for the campaign.

It was an even spread for the Wildcats with Redhage limited to just 17 minutes and 15 points due to his foul trouble meaning other players had to step up in the continued absence of injured big men Matt Knight and Jesse Wagstaff.

Weigh and Cam Tovey both top-scored with 17 points and Drew Williamson added 11, Brad Robbins 10, Majok 10 (and four blocks) and Kevin Lisch nine.

Worthington had a massive game for Gold Coast against his home town team finishing with 33 points on the back of 11-of-14 shooting from the field and 10-of-13 from the charity line. He also picked up eight boards.

Ira Clark had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Tom Garlepp and Darryl Hudson 13 points, and Chris Goulding 10 against his former team.

While in Adelaide, the Adelaide 36ers ended an indifferent calendar year in style with an emphatic 98-83 hammering of the Wollongong Hawks at The Dome on Friday.

The final score arguably flattered the Hawks, who rallied late against an impressive Sixers outfit which, after leading at every change, opened up a commanding 25-point gap midway through the final term before cruising home.

Eddie Shannon, who was on-fire early, scored a game-high 23 points, knocking down five three-pointers, along with four assists.

Darren Ng dropped four treys at 80 percent among his 16 points (86 percent overall), while skipper Adam Ballinger's 16 points at 70 percent were accompanied by seven boards.

Former 36er Oscar Forman was easily Wollongong's best with 17 points at 75 percent, while Gary Ervin was made to work hard for his 15 points on five-of-19 shooting to go with four turnovers.

Townsville Crocodiles 96 (Hinder 18, Williamson 16, Cedar 15) New Zealand Breakers 79 (Braswell 32, Wilkinson 15, Penney 12)

Perth Wildcats 96 (Weigh 17, Tovey 17, Redhage 15) Gold Coast Blaze 93 (Worthington 33, Clark 14, Garlepp 14)

Cairns Taipans 60 (Ubaka 16, Loughton 12, Grabau 11) Sydney Kings 48 (Martin 17, Khazzouh 9, Damien Ryan 6)

Adelaide 36ers 98 (Shannon 23, Ng 16, Ballinger 16) Wollongong Hawks 83 (Forman 17, Ervin 15, Campbell 13)