Basketball: Arsego drums point home

Breakers coach Frank Arsego will continue to drum the need for consistency into his team as they prepare for tonight's match against the Brisbane Bullets.

The Breakers suffered their third defeat in a row, losing 112-103 to the Townsville Crocs in Townsville on Wednesday night after a dismal third-quarter performance.

But as usual there is little time to dwell on the loss as tonight they square off against the second-placed Bullets across the Tasman.

The Breakers suffered a narrow 90-84 loss to the Bullets in round seven but only two rounds later the Bullets handed them their biggest loss of the season to date 137-96.

"They are playing really well," said Arsego of the Bullets, who have won their last three games.

"Playing them at home it is going to be a really tough match but at the end of the day our backs are up against the wall - we have nothing to lose and everything to gain."

He said the key will be to shut down the Bullets' powerful forward lineup, which includes Kevin Freeman who, with 30 points, was the Bullets' top scorer in their 113-106 win over Cairns on Wednesday.

"They are a great shooting team and they play with a lot of energy so we have to match them in all those areas," Arsego said. "We have got to be able to stop their main scorers and take some of them out of the game. We have to value the basketball and make sure they don't get too many opportunities.

"We are just looking for that consistent performance through the 48 minutes."

The Breakers jumped out to an 8-0 lead against the Crocs in the first 90 seconds after Mike Chappell sank two three-pointers and skipper Pero Cameron added a lay-up.

The Breakers lead 32-28 after the first quarter but Townsville worked their way back into the game. The Crocs took a one-point lead into half time and outscored the Breakers 36-18 in the third quarter.

In the final quarter, the Breakers trailed by 24 points at one point before making a now familiar late charge that reduced the deficit to seven points.

But it was too much to overhaul and the Breakers finished December with four wins and four losses.

Centre Ben Melmeth led the scoring for the Breakers with 23 points, while Chappell added 19 and Cameron contributed 18 and six rebounds.

Guard Aaron Olson (15 points) converted 5/7 from three-point range but back-up centre Iona Enosa had an unhappy game, fouling out in just 13 minutes of court time.

Turnovers hurt the Breakers. They committed 24 to Townsville's 14, while the visitors were also on the wrong end of a 27-18 foul count.

"To be honest I was probably a little bit disappointed, not for the fact we went down but more because we had a bit of a third-quarter meltdown," Arsego said.

"They opened the game up in the third quarter. Our other three quarters were fantastic. They were very good and all of high quality but unfortunately when we came out from the half we let ourselves down."

The Breakers are now 11th in the 12-team competition. However, with 13 matches to play there is a logjam between 8th and 11th spot, which means the Breakers could still secure a playoff spot.

"There is some urgency in the group," Arsego said.

"The boys want to be successful, we all want the Breakers to be successful but in saying that we don't want to be in a situation where it is the end of the world when we drop a game because there is still quite a few games to go."

* In other matches played on New Year's Eve, the Victoria Giants beat the Melbourne Tigers 116-111; the West Sydney Razorbacks toppled the Perth Wildcats 100-87, Adelaide 36ers edged out the Hunter Pirates 93-86 and the Bullets cleaned out the Cairns Taipans 113-106.