Wellington, Oct 22 NZPA - The New Zealand Breakers nearly paid for another bout of the final quarter basketball blues before emerging 92-82 winners over the Townsville Crocodiles in Auckland tonight.

Seemingly coasting towards their third home win from three home matches in the Australian National Basketball League, the Breakers had to withstand a finishing burst from the visitors.

Much to the relief of the crowd at the North Shore Events Centre, the hosts avoided a repeat of their last-start loss to the Wollongong Hawks, where they were punished for a late fade.

Instead they could reflect on a performance highlighted by a blistering start, leaping out to a 19-point lead inside the first quarter which allowed them to dominate proceedings.

They enjoyed that same margin entering the final quarter, up 81-62 before conceding 14 unanswered Crocodile points which reduced the advantage to five.

A three-point shot from the Breakers' American forward Awvee Storey extinguished the visitors' fire and ultimately left both teams with a three win-three loss record.

It was appropriate that former NBA stalwart Storey made the decisive play as he produced his best game for the Breakers, scoring a game-high 22 points.

Before tonight he had tallied 29 points through five games but he was more dynamic tonight, hitting eight from 12 shots, including a remarkable five-from-seven three-point shots.

Also outstanding was centre Rick Rickert, who scored 16 points and pulled down a massive 18 rebounds, eight more than any other player.

Stephen Hoare scored 18 for Townsville and Cameron Tovey 16 but in-form guard Corey Williams was restricted to just nine points in a three-from-nine evening in which he was effectively shut down.

Before tonight Townsville were second and the Breakers sixth but the home side dominated key facets, shooting 51 percent to 43 percent and pulling down 40 rebounds to 29.

I t was the Breakers' 200th game in the ANBL and, importantly, their first of four consecutive home matches.

They have lost all three matches in Australia this year but have been perfect at home and will seek to continue that against Adelaide next Thursday, followed by games against Gold Coast and Perth.

It is expected that scoring star Kirk Penney will return for those matches.