A fifth straight win for the New Zealand Breakers has kept their Australian National Basketball League play-off hopes alive, but their post season involvement won't be known until Saturday night.
A 109-94 win over the Gold Coast Blaze on the North Shore on Thursday night keeps the Breakers in fifth place, so they still need to win their final match in Cairns and hope teams above them lose.
They wanted either Melbourne to beat Gold Coast or for Wollongong to lose both of their matches in a double header this weekend against Melbourne and Adelaide - but the Hawks won the match against the Tigers to book their spot.
So the Breakers' hopes rest on the Tigers' clash with Gold Coast at Melbourne tonight.
The Breakers were on top for the majority of Thursday's match thanks to another top-scoring performance by skipper Kirk Penney with 26 points while Rick Rickert was solid in his return from injury, picking up nine rebounds.
American import Kevin Braswell was another influential player in the Breakers' win, keeping his side in the game with 14 points, six assists and five steals.
