The New Zealand Breakers have celebrated their homecoming with a scrappy 71-65 win over the Tasmania JackJumpers, who have dropped all three games of the new NBL season after finishing their inaugural campaign as runners-up.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Breakers onto the road for the majority of the past two seasons, both of which resulted in bottom-two finishes for the New Zealand side.
Their return to New Zealand finally came on Friday night after 489 days away and the first win of Mody Moar's head coaching tenure followed.
Undersized and undermanned, the JackJumpers struggled to match the Breakers' energy early and fell to a 15-5 deficit midway through the first quarter.
Both sides were reluctant to take the paint on early but were more exploratory in the second quarter.
The JackJumpers outworked their opponents on offensive rebounds (11-3 in the first half) to help close the gap but could not find the same accuracy as the Breakers.
In Jarrell Brantley (16 first-half points), the New Zealanders had a prolific route to the basket in the first two quarters.
Jack McVeigh was a popular target for the visitors, who struggled to account for the absence of the injured Clint Steindl and Will Magnay in their two losses last weekend.
McVeigh finished with 19 points to go with six rebounds to confirm his status as the best of a beaten bunch.
Scoring dried up for both sides in the second half as the JackJumpers showed glimpses of the defensive hustle that took them to last year's grand final series.
The combined total of 17 points for the third quarter was only two higher than the record for lowest total for a period in NBL history.
A Jarred Bairstow free throw cut the margin to only two points at the final change as the New Zealanders appeared to be running out of puff and ideas for breaching the defence.
But the JackJumpers were never able to close the gap as the Breakers again began to capitalise from deep.
When McVeigh missed a lay-up under the basket in the final 20 seconds and then Tasmania's Rashard Kelly fouled Izayah Le'afa for two shots, the Breakers snuck home for a gritty but memorable win.
