Coll beaten in semifinal

Top New Zealand men’s squash player

was ousted in the semifinals of the Black Ball Open PSA tournament in Cairo, Egypt, yesterday. A day after beating world No 3 German Simon Ro¨ sner in the quarterfinals Coll was unable to repeat the dose against Egyptian world No 2 Ali Farag. Farag was too strong throughout, claiming an 11-4, 11-4, 13-11 victory in 47 minutes. Coll, the 26-year-old from Greymouth, was unable to settle into his rhythm. Despite the loss, Coll’s efforts in Cairo have pushed him towards another career-high world ranking, having already reached that mark in being No 7 on this month’s list. A horror third-quarter showing has condemned the New Zealand Breakers to their fifth-straight Australian NBL defeat. They were tied 35-35 at halftime of 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 second-lowest 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 low-scoring match.

(Andrew Bogut 23 points, Jerome Randle 14, Kevin Lisch 10)

(Jarrad Weeks 19 points, Tom Abercrombie 18, Tai Wesley 14). Q1: 20-23; HT: 35-35; Q3: 56-41.

Kings 71 Breakers 70