The New Zealand Breakers have sent Tony Ronaldson into retirement as a winner after overcoming the Cairns Taipans 84-79 at the Cairns Convention Centre on Saturday night.
NBL legend Ronaldson played a key role in his 665th and final game contributing 17 points - including four triples.
Kirk Penney and CJ Bruton were the chief destroyers with 23 and 22 points respectively.
Dusty Rychart battled hard for the Taipans in front of a season-best home crowd of 4747.
Twenty-one of his 24 points came in the first half but it was not quite enough to get the Snakes home.
The visitors lead for the majority of the opening term but a late Rich Melzer three-point play off the glass gave the hosts a two-point lead (22-20) at first break.
The Breakers blasted off the pine in the second quarter.
Penney scored six straight points to open the term and by the time Bruton nailed a three from the top of the key the Breakers were on a 13-2 run and led 33-24.
The Snakes turned the tide through Rychart who went berserk scoring 14 straight Taipans points as the hosts went on their own 16-5 run to re-claim the lead 40-39 with less than two minutes to play in the half.
Cairns held on to a slender 45-44 half-time lead.
Rychart's personal tally of 21 points included shooting at almost 80 percent from the floor for Cairns while Bruton had 14 and Penney 12 courtesy of eight from nine from the charity stripe for New Zealand.
The Breakers again leapt off the pine with the big three - Penney, Bruton and Ronaldson - combining for five triples as their first five scoring shots of the half.
The lead grew to as many as eight with Penney contributing 10 points for the quarter as the visitors took a 67-60 lead into the final term.
The Taipans fought hard and wrestled the lead back to two and were within three points in the final minute but the Breakers never relinquished control to send the man known as 'The Bear' into retirement as a winner.
The Breakers finished the season 15-13 and while they were only two wins from the minor premiership, they were one win short of the play offs.
The Taipans finished their season with an 11-17 season record, but a near full house offered plenty of promise for season 2010/11.
New Zealand Breakers 84 (Penney 23, Bruton 22, Ronaldson 17)
Cairns Taipans 79 (Rychart 24, Phill Jones 15, Aaron Grabau 15)
@ Cairns Convention Centre, 13/2/2010, Crowd: 4747