Breakers end NBL campaign by trouncing Taipans

Steve Barrett | February 19, 2026

The New Zealand Breakers have ended a disappointing NBL season on a high, thumping the hapless Cairns Taipans 115-84.

Sam Mennenga, returning after a six-game absence with a fractured wrist, starred with 32 points on 15-of-19 shooting at Auckland’s EventFinda Stadium on Thursday night.

Parker Jackson-Cartwright paired 19 points with 13 assists, while Carlin Davison and Karim Lopez had 15 points each for the seventh-placed Breakers (13-20).

NZ still have one prize to aim for, when they face the Adelaide 36ers in Sunday’s Ignite Cup final on the Gold Coast.

“Proud of the group,” Breakers coach Petteri Koponen said.

“We wanted to finish the right way in front of our home fans.

“It started with the defensive end. We kept working all 40 minutes.”

Andrew Andrews (24 points) and Kody Stattman (20) were stoic for the ninth-ranked Taipans (9-24), whose sub-par season concluded in dismal fashion.

Cairns superstar Jack McVeigh endured a dirty day, scrounging just six points on a 3-of-11 clip, his last shot of the season swatted into the stands by Davison.

Mennenga chalked up the Breakers’ first eight points and 10 inside the opening four minutes.

At the other end, Andrews had 13 as Cairns drew level at 24-all at quarter-time.

Stattman started the second period with successive threes to help the Taipans move ahead 32-26, before NZ seized complete control.

Back-to-back Mennenga dunks highlighted a 9-0 rush, before Davison spearheaded another 10-0 burst for the Breakers, who hit a sizzling 15-of-19 in a 37-20 quarter while out-rebounding Cairns 13-4.

The bouncy Davison poured in 11 for the stanza, including a huge dunk, to push the hosts’s advantage out to 61-44 at halftime.

Cairns were breaking down in all areas, out-rebounded an implausible 13-4 in the second term and their marquee superstar Mennenga continued to wreak havoc in the paint, taking his personal tally to 27 at three-quarter time, by which time the Breakers’ buffer had ballooned to 88-66.

The procession continued when Reyne Smith coughed up a turnover which resulted in a three-point play to Mennenga in the opening 20 seconds of the fourth as the Snakes wrapped up their campaign by meekly waiving the white flag.

“I could sit here and say we did this, that or the other, but the reality is we were going through the motions,” Cairns coach Adam Forde said, damningly.

“NZ gave their fans something to cheer about, and we were just waiting for the siren to sound.”