Breakers suffer fifth loss on the trot
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 of their match against the Sydney Kings at Spark Arena in Auckland yesterday afternoon, 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 did make an 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter, before Jarrad Weeks hit back-toback 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 up with a three and the gap was one with 20 seconds to go. Sydney attempt, missed sparking a a three 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, although 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 and had just six players troubling the scorers.
One of those was not their second-leading scorer this season, Corey Webster, who had one of his worst games in Breakers colours, shooting 0-9. Import Patrick Richard wasn’t much better, shooting 0-6.
Weeks proved to be their best, coming off the bench to notch 19 points, sparking their revival late in the match.
Abercrombie (18 points, six rebounds) and Wesley (14 points, 11 rebounds) were their usual consistent selves, but the supporting cast did not do enough, especially during that brutal third quarter. At a glance
Sydney Kings 71 (Andrew Bogut 23 points, Jerome Randle 14, Kevin Lisch 10) New Zealand Breakers 70 (Jarrad Weeks 19 points, Tom Abercrombie 18, Tai Wesley 14). Q1: 20-23; HT: 35-35; Q3: 56-41