Woeful third quarter costly for Breakers
A horror third-quarter showing has condemned the New Zealand Breakers to their fifth straight Australian National Basketball League defeat.
They were tied 35-35 at halftime in their match against the Sydney Kings in Auckland yesterday but a 21-6 third quarter sent them on their way to a 71-70 loss.
That third quarter was the secondlowest scoring quarter in Breakers history.
The Breakers made an 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter, before Jarrad Weeks hit back-to-back threes to bring the deficit to four with two minutes to go to setup a thrilling end to the lowscoring match.
Shea Ili won an inbounds turnover in the final minute to drive for a layup to bring it back to two. Tom Abercrombie followed that with a three and the gap was one with 20 seconds to go.
Sydney missed a three attempt, sparking a wild scramble for the ball. Abercrombie won the ball with a diving effort but went out of bounds before he could get rid of it, leaving Sydney to inbound with 2.3 seconds on the clock.
The Kings’ Jerome Randle inexplicably stepped out of bounds when taking the inbounds pass, though there was a fair bit of contact from Abercrombie.
That left 1.4 seconds on the clock, Tai Wesley made the inbounds pass to Weeks, who found Abercrombie, but his shot was short.
The loss meant the Breakers have not won since their November 11 win over the Brisbane Bullets. They sit second-bottom on the ANBL ladder at 4-8, above only the 1-9 Cairns Taipans.
The Breakers were unable to shut down Kings centre Andrew Bogut. He led all scorers with 23 points on 11-15 shooting, while hauling in 16 rebounds.
The Breakers’ shooting was their biggest issue. They shot 36 per cent from the floor with Corey Webster, their second-leading scorer this season, having one of his worst games in Breakers colours, shooting 0-9.
At a glance
Sydney Kings 71 (Andrew Bogut 23, Jerome Randle 14, Kevin Lisch 10) New Zealand Breakers 70 (Jarrad Weeks 19, Tom Abercrombie 18, Tai Wesley 14). Q1: 20-23; HT: 35-35; Q3: 56-41