At 23 points down in the second quarter, the NZ Breakers looked well on the way to a third straight Aussie NBL defeat at Vector Arena.

Thankfully, basketball is a game of four quarters and a withering comeback from the defending champions saw them snatch a dramatic, and emphatic, 88-74 victory from the Townsville Crocodiles.

The Breakers looked dead and buried, but snapped out of their funk and ran down the Queenslanders with some ease.

After conceding 33 points in the opening quarter, they kept the Crocs to 41 for the next three, and were easily able to haul in the reptiles, who looked like they were trying to run through quicksand over the second half.

“Our group last year when we got down, whether it was on the road or at home, we always believed we were going to win,” said Breakers assistant coach Dean Vickerman. “Tonight goes a long way to building that back again. This group, whatever situation we’re in, we’re still going to believe there’s a chance for our team to get over the line.”

In front of 4571 fans – another great turnout at Vector – it was just what the doctor ordered for the Breakers who snapped a two-game losing skid and shot back to equal top of the table with a 6-3 record. The defeat drops the Crocs to 3-4.

The Breakers were again paced by a team-high 19 points (6/12 FG) from Tom Abercrombie who added five points and three assists and showed again how destructive he can be off the dribble. Sharpshooter Daryl Corletto got to the right spots at the right times to swish a quartet of three-pointers among 16 big points.

Big Gary Wilkinson added 18 points (8/13 FG) and seven boards in a high-energy display, while point guard Cedric ‘Action’ Jackson was a blur of speed and intensity as he finished agonisingly close to a triple-double with 11 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists and four steals.

The Breakers won without a significant contribution from the struggling CJ Bruton who played only six minutes and didn’t put up a shot, but the game did feature a promising debut by Tall Black Leon Henry who put in a much-needed high-energy display in the second half to gather five points and five boards in just 11 minutes.

The NBL champions once again smashed their opponents on the boards (40-27) and finished the game shooting a highly respectable 50 percent from the floor (35/70) and 47 from deep (9/19). They also did exceedingly well to cool the Crocs off to a modest 40 percent from the field after they'd been running around the 75 mark early on.

“That was a pretty special run they went on in the first quarter,” added Vickerman. “We weren’t horribly disappointed with the threes, it was the uncontested layups we gave up. The biggest concern was if we could stop the transition part and slow 'em' down… we solved those problems in the second half.”

When the Queenslanders extended their lead out to 23 early in the second quarter they were shooting at a blazing 71 percent clip from the field and a scorching 75 from deep. Sure, the defence was nothing to write home about, but you had to credit Peter Crawford, Jacob Holmes and Todd Blanchfield who made light of the theory these rims are tough to shoot on.

But around the midway point of the quarter the Breakers came to life – just in the nick of time – and as Abercrombie rattled off eight quick points, they got the deficit down to a manageable dozen by the major break. Who knew – after playing dead for most of the half, the corpse had a pulse.

The home comeback continued apace in the third quarter as the Breakers shooters began to find their range – Corletto’s pair of long bombs particularly handy – and the Crocs came out ice-cold. In a flash the Kiwis had their first lead, 60-58, late in the period, even if a late Holmes three-pointer restored it for the Crocs at the final break.

From there the momentum was all with the Breakers as they pulled away to an unlikely romp. Holmes (21 points) and Crawford (17) had big games for the visitors but no one in a Crocs uniform could do much positive after the halftime break.

“We held them to two points for the last  five minutes of the second period. That group we had out there knuckled down on defence, and when we’re a good defensive team we get a lot of deflections, and those turned into steals, and gave us some easy baskets," Vickerman added.

“To hold them to 74 after giving up 33 in the first quarter was a great defensive effort for those last three quarters.”

The Breakers now have a full week to lick their wounds and get themselves ready for the Melbourne Tigers at the NSEC next Friday.

NZ Breakers 88 (Tom Abercrombie 19, Gary Wilkinson 18, Daryl Corletto 16, Cedric Jackson 11), Townsville Crocodiles 74 (Jacob Holmes 21, Peter Crawford 17). 1Q: 14-33; HT: 35-47; 3Q: 60-61.

- Stuff