{"id":406594,"date":"2026-01-11T16:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T16:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/406594\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T16:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T16:59:17","slug":"breakers-survive-hawks-fightback-in-crucial-nbl-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/406594\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakers survive Hawks fightback in crucial NBL win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next Star Karim Lopez shone as New Zealand drove another dagger into Illawarra’s title defence and rebooted their own NBL playoffs push with a tense 101-96 road win.<\/p>\n

Embarrassed in a 41-point home thrashing from Sydney two days earlier, the Breakers had a point to prove in Wollongong on Sunday as both sides sought to keep their season alive.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Petteri Koponen’s side hung on in the final seconds when a crucial over-and-back call went against Hawks import Tyler Harvey, and Rob Baker sealed the result from the foul line.<\/p>\n

Harvey hit some big shots down the stretch, but couldn’t drag his side over the line as the Breakers kept their cool when it mattered.<\/p>\n

Lopez scored an important reverse lay-up, and his teammates nailed their last six free-throw attempts.<\/p>\n

Karim Lopez of the Breakers drives to the basket against the Hawks.\u00a0Photo by Jeremy Ng\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Parker Jackson-Cartwright had 23 points, eight assists and seven rebounds to lead New Zealand (9-15) in a win that kept them in touch with sixth-placed Tasmania (12-13) in the hunt for post-season action.<\/p>\n

Sam Mennenga (21 points) and Izaiah Brockington (20) also stood tall, and Baker responded to public criticism from coach Koponen with 17 points and six rebounds.<\/p>\n

Mexican teenager Lopez – projected as a first-round NBA draft pick this year – had 16 points, six assists, five steals and four rebounds in an influential display.<\/p>\n

“We’re not that bad a team like we showed last time against Sydney, and this is a great way to respond,” Koponen said.<\/p>\n

“We were much better. The energy, the fight – everything was there.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but at least you want to see that competitiveness every time, and we came here to compete.”<\/p>\n

Illawarra slipped to 8-15 after an error-riddled performance, in which they coughed up 19 turnovers.<\/p>\n

The Hawks fought back from a 15-point third-quarter deficit to give themselves a chance, but fittingly it was Harvey’s turnover from an in-bounds pass with six seconds left that sealed their fate when his foot crossed the halfway line.<\/p>\n

It was the Breakers’ third win over Illawarra this season, following one-sided hammerings by 29 and 42 points earlier in the campaign.<\/p>\n

“They just want it more,” Hawks coach Justin Tatum said.<\/p>\n

“It’s unfortunate that my team doesn’t show the same resilience against anyone – not just New Zealand, but anyone who has a chance to find a way to beat us in certain areas.<\/p>\n

“They just came out and wanted it more. I don’t think they’re overly more talented or made more shots.<\/p>\n

“They just try to find ways to win the game, and that’s what they’ve done.”<\/p>\n

Quentin Peterson (22 points), Will Hickey, Daniel Grida and Harvey (14 each) led Illawarra’s scoring.<\/p>\n

Hickey was central to an 11-0 Hawks run during the third quarter that breathed life into the contest, and was involved in an off-the-ball incident with Lopez that earned both players warning from the referees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next Star Karim Lopez shone as New Zealand drove another dagger into Illawarra’s title defence and rebooted their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-406594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}