Vukona’s party ruined by Kings

It was supposed to be Mika Vukona’s night, but clearly no one told Andrew Gaze’s Sydney Kings.

The revamped Sydneysiders came into the NSEC and hijacked the celebrations with a statement-making 92-78 victory over Vukona’s NZ Breakers in his 300th Australian National Basketball League (ANBL) game for the club.

The Kings were impressive. Led by quality efforts from imports Greg Whittington (a game-high 22 points and seven rebounds) and two-time NBA champ Josh Powell (17 points on eight-of-11 shooting), they simply outgunned their hosts to improve to 3-1 for the new season.

The razor-sharp backcourt of Jason Cadee and Kevin Lisch combined for 29 points for the visitors, while Brad Newley was slick for his 13 points (6/8 FG), six assists and four boards.

The Breakers dropped to 1-2 with their first home defeat of the campaign, and have a bit to think about after another lessthan-impressive offensive display. They shot 48 per cent from the floor and 43 from deep, but coughed up 17 turnovers, which resulted in an 18-2 advantage to the visitors in points off giveaways. Sydney, by contrast, turned the ball over just seven times.

After trailing by 10 (72-62) at the end of the third quarter, the Breakers locked in on defence to keep the Kings scoreless for over three minutes. The problem was they didn’t score themselves until just shy of the midway point of the final term with a pair of Alex Pledger free-throws, and didn’t make their first field goal until the 4:01 mark.

The home side clawed it back to seven with just over two minutes left but the Kings correction came when it was needed.

Tom Abercrombie put in another honest night’s work to top the Breakers’ scoring for the third straight game with 17 points while Pledger continued his upward form curve with a hard-working 10 points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes.