Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Sidline Sid nearly forgot about the New Zealand Breakers attempt to keep their dream alive of become the first New Zealand team to win an Australian National Sporting League title.

After the Breakers were thumped in Auckland by the Perth Wildcats in the first leg of the best of three semi-final series – few gave the Breakers much chance of going to the cauldron of the Wildcats headquarters in Perth and returning home with a victory to keep the series alive.

Last Sunday night, the team that represents the hopes of New Zealand in the ABL, put together a true gutsy performance to beat the enemy in their own backyard.

In the age of wall-to-wall world sport courtesy of Sky Television, we have become TV sport snackers, who switch backwards and forwards taking small bites from several games taking place at the same time.

On Sunday, switching between the rugby league and the horse races, I nearly forgot about the Breakers ‘had to win or your season is ended' match-up in Perth.

There was a heap of disappointment with the Breakers' home town loss in the first leg of the semi-final series in Auckland.

The Breakers simply capitulated in front of huge expectations.

After being absolutely thumped 101-78 in the first leg, few basketball critics other than loyal and passionate Breakers fans gave the New Zealand team any hope in Perth.

As the often-used Aussie phrase says – they had two chances, Buckley's and none.

Turning over with 10 minutes remaining in the game – the two sides were locked together. With a determination that wins championship titles, the Breakers dug deep to take all their chances, to grab a 93-89 victory.

The Breakers' comeback win on the west coast of Australia sees the two weekend combatants again go head to head on Wednesday night at the North Shore Events Centre on Auckland's North Shore.

There is likely to be a large number of Western Bay viewers on Sky on Wednesday evening. Basketball is a sport that flies under the radar in the Western Bay with huge numbers playing the game, but very little publicity in the local media.

One of the prime movers for the new Events Centre at Baypark was the (then) Western Bay of Plenty Basketball Association.

An explosion in numbers over the last decade, primarily driven from the introductory game of mini ball, resulted in absolute court saturation.

Today, Tauranga City Basketball caters for all ages and aspirations from mini ball through to masters competitions.

Two programmes in place that will serve the local code well in the future, are junior development and junior high performance programmes.

However, the sport is badly in need of some self-promotion.

When the Western Bay Suns held centre stage at QE2 there was plenty of publicity with the result that the Western Bay side attracted the best home crowd numbers of the BBNZ Division Two competition.

Go the Breakers.