The Illawarra Hawks have emerged victorious in an epic battle against the New Zealand Breakers, winning 76-78. Held at the Spark Arena in Auckland Thursday night, the crowd witnessed a thrilling game with plenty of action and intensity.

Tenth position Hawks totally stunned the home team Breakers in the last seconds of this game while Tyler Harvey converted a half-court shot into stunning 3-points. Having lost four straight games, New Zealand is now uncertain of qualifying for the newly introduced play-in games in the NBL.

However, from the beginning, the game was surprisingly dominated by the visiting team Illawarra. After the end of a one-sided first half, the scoreline was 14-27. The hawks were clearly leading by 13 points.

In the second period, the Breakers started to push hard to fight back in this game. They were both offensively and defensively far better in this half rather than in the previous period. Though the home team gained some momentum, the Hawks still led the game by 4 points with a scoreline of 35-39.

However, both teams traded baskets early in the third period, but the Illawarra was able to pull ahead to take a comfortable 50-58 lead into halftime.

The fourth and final half saw more of the same as both sides played with great determination and effort. Although most of the time the game was led by the lower sides Hawks, with only 10 seconds remaining on the clock, Breakers seemed to be in control leading by 1 point with the magic of Thomas Abercrombie’s 2-pointer.

Then the score was 76-75, and the around 4,000 attendance were going to be witnessed an epic comeback of the Breakers. But that soon changed when Harvey converted the game’s last shot into a three-pointer to stop Hawks’ 11-game losing run.

Harvey led all players with 25 points for Illawarra, while Mangok Mathiang contributed 15 points. Meanwhile, Breakers’ Dererk Pardon had 19 points, along with 17 rebounds and 2 assists.

In a heart-stopping finish, the Hawks were able to hold off a late surge by New Zealand and secure their only third victory of the season. With this loss, the Breakers continue to slip behind on the NBL ladder, where a top-two finish will automatically qualify them for the semi-finals.

As a result, the Kiwis are two wins behind the second-placed Cairns Taipans and three wins behind the leading Sydney Kings. The Breakers will visit the Kings on Sunday to remain in the top six and qualify for the finals.