Maybe the Wollongong Hawks just love a thrilling finish.

Stumbling through the first three quarters before bursting to life and almost pulling out a victory might be a common theme for the Hawks this season.

It happened in a 91-89 home loss to Cairns a week ago and was repeated in Sunday's 79-77 loss to New Zealand, leaving Wollongong at the bottom of the ladder with a 1-5 record.

"We have to keep trying to be more consistent over four quarters," Hawks coach Gordie McLeod said.

"If we can do that we'll get over the line, but we have to make some progress."

Down by five at half-time against the Breakers, Wollongong were out-scored in the third quarter for the fifth time in six games and fell behind by as many as 15.

They won the fourth quarter for the third time this season, yet it wasn't enough to overcome the Breakers.

McLeod has a busy week ahead of him to get his side ready to host titleholders Perth on Friday,

"At times tonight our structure was very, very poor," he said.

"We're getting lost and not really not knowing how to attack and what to do. We really have to get better at that side of things. Yes we want to be a running team, but we have to get some two-tempo in the half-court. At the moment we're not doing a good enough job with that, getting our bigs catches as well as our stretch-shooters catches.

"The guys are really showing a lot of fight and spirit, but in the end we're making basic fundamental errors that are compounding and hurting us."

Jahii Carson scored a game-high 24 points for Wollongong, 18 in the fourth quarter.

Luke Nevill finished with 12, while Adam Ballinger, Tim Coenraad and Oscar Forman each had seven.

Guard Corey Webster topped the Breakers with 16.

New Zealand grabbed 40 rebounds to Wollongong's 33 and made 46 per cent of their shots compared to 40 per cent for the home team.

Hawks guard Gary Ervin left the court in the first minute of the second half with a back injury and didn't return.

"This is our sixth game in three weeks, so we're really under the pump and not getting a lot of time to practise," McLeod said.

"This league has gone up a notch this year. We have to make some progress this week because we're playing against Perth, the championship team."