Bryce Cotton led the charge as the Adelaide 36ers held off a late rally by the New Zealand Breakers to score their first ever win at Christchurch’s Wolfbrook Arena on Thursday night.
Cotton overcame a scoreless first quarter to drain a team-high 23 points as the Sixers improved to a 7-2 record with a hard-fought four-point win.
The home side rallied back from a rusty opening term to lead by two points at the last break, but started the final term stone cold, failing to register a score in nearly six minutes on 0-of-8 shooting.
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Adelaide rode a 9-0 run to lead by seven points with just four minutes remaining before Nick Rakocevic was whistled for an unsportsmanlike foul on Sam Mennenga, who hit his side’s first point of the term from the foul line.
Amazingly, New Zealand was 0-of-15 from the floor seven-and-a-half minutes into the last quarter.
Mike Wells’ side led by four points with 1:24 left on the clock, and back-to-back turnovers gave the Breakers hope.
Flynn Cameron hit one of two free throws to make it a three-point game with 15 seconds remaining, before Zylan Cheatham was intentionally fouled and iced the contest with two successful free throws.
CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND – NOVEMBER 06: Bryce Cotton of the 36ers is challenged by Izaiah Brockington of the Breakers during the round eight NBL match between New Zealand Breakers and Adelaide 36ers at Wolfbrook Arena, on November 06, 2025, in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
SCORING STRUGGLES
New Zealand was coming off a 42-point thrashing of Illawarra and Adelaide’s Cotton led the league with a career high 29.4 points per game, but both sides struggled to find their groove on offence early.
The disjointed Breakers were 2-of-10 from three-point range in the first quarter and 6-of-18 from the floor.
Cotton shared those scoring struggles, the superstar was a 91 per cent shooter from the foul line going into the clash but missed back-to-back free throws and was 0-of-4 from the floor in a scoreless first quarter.
Rakocevic picked up the slack on offence for the Sixers with nine points as the visitors led by as much as 10 points before taking a 22-14 lead into the first break.
New Zealand led the league in rebounds after seven rounds, but trailed Adelaide 7-17 in the key stat in the first term.
BROCKINGTON BLITZ
The streaky Breakers went from their lowest opening term of the season to their highest second quarter of the campaign.
Import Izaiah Brockington had three points in the first quarter but exploded into action to lead a blistering 33-point second-quarter blitz with 13 of his own as the home side wrested back control on the boards.
Cotton got his radar working to pour in 11 points, but he was Adelaide’s only shooter in double digits at halftime.
Rakocevic went stone-cold after his hot start with no points for the second quarter, with DJ Vasiljevic failing to add to his three first-quarter points and Zylan Cheatham managing just three points in the first half as New Zealand jumped out to a 47-43 halftime lead.
