Adelaide held off a high-spirited charge by a rejuvenated New Zealand Breakers side to hang on to third spot on the NBL table with a 100-91 win at the Distinctive Homes Dome.

The Sixers victory, which was largely engineered in the first half, gave coach Phil Smyth a happy record-breaking 652nd game as an NBL player or coach, passing the mark set by long-time Melbourne Tigers coach Lindsay Gaze.

Captain Brett Maher had a typically dependable night for Adelaide with 24 points, while Willie Farley (17 points) enjoyed a second term purple patch and Jacob Holmes (14 points, 11 boards) was vital at both ends of the court.

The Breakers were held together by the sterling efforts of forward Rich Melzer, who contributed a game-high 24 points and 15 rebounds, and playmaker Brian Green, who fouled out one assist shy of the Breakers first ever triple double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.

Adelaide had brushed the Breakers aside in two previous meetings this season and it looked like more of the same as the 36ers again skipped away in the first term 32-23.

The Sixers continued to squeeze New Zealand after the interval, Farley book-ending two triples either side of a fancy reverse lay-up to take Adelaide's lead out to 16 midway through the second.

That the margin was only 15 at the main break was due almost entirely to Melzer, who ran up 20 points and six rebounds for the half.

His team-mates lifted visibly in the third term as the Breakers landed 11 straight and cut the margin to four, highlighted by Melzer's strong dunk from a precise alley-oop play by Green.

Adelaide rallied but a second New Zealand run 6-0 into the last change left just two points between the teams as the final term began.

New Zealand repeatedly cut the gap to one, and missed several attempts to take the lead.

The 36ers had been stifled in offence, but a timely three to Oscar Forman with three minutes left gave them a four point lead that was built up to nine by the final buzzer.

Smyth was relieved his team lifted its intensity for the last quarter to stay in contention for a top four finish.

"It was good for us that when they came back at us we were able to hold up and down the stretch we were able to get away from them again so it was a good game," he said.

"We'd like to finish third or fourth, having said that at the start of the year we would've said 'yeah - good luck'.

"We've still got some work to do to consolidate that but it looks like we are going in the right direction at the moment."

New Zealand coach Andrej Lemanis said his team would be better for the experience.

"This is probably the first one in a while where it has actually come down to the last couple of minutes and we haven't been in that situation before and we could have executed better," he said.

"We are making progress, since December we've been playing some pretty good basketball particularly when we execute our offence."

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