Basketball: Young Suns lose in season opener

The Northland Suns were all at sea against the New Zealand Junior Breakers in their season opener at the ASB Kensington Stadium on Saturday.

The Whangarei team were outclassed on the court, eventually losing by more than 30 points. Their coach Stanko Susjnar said it was a hard game to watch.

"I was hoping for better in their first game but they were under pressure from their own high expectations and that, combined with a good Breakers team, saw them make a lot of mistakes," he said.

The Suns played a fitful game, at times matching their classy young opposition but most of the time they looked like a team who barely knew each other.

They rebounded well but after getting the ball back they more often than not gave it away again with woeful passing. The Breakers were more clinical in their finishing with their short passing game creating space under the basket. When that didn't work, their point guard drained three pointers with monotonous regularity.

The Suns showed promise on the odd occasion but were unlucky to be drawn against such a well drilled and well practised team so early in the competition.

A crowd of around 150 people who turned out to watch the game at least had the benefit of being able to watch some of the country's young stars in action.

Susjnar said the Suns will be working hard in the coming weeks to get the team closer to reaching their potential on the court with the timing and execution of set plays high on the list of work-ons.