Basketball: Breakers let down by shooting as they go down to the Taipans

By PETER JESSUP

The Breakers crashed 108-98 to the Cairns Taipans at Waitakere Trusts Stadium last night in a game in which they offered their fans little cheer.

They trailed throughout. Failure to convert their chances, and turnovers offered to the visitors, spoiled any chance they may have had.

Polynesian drums never worked for the Warriors, but that's what greeted the spectators last night. Their coach, Tony Kemp, was there to see what losing does for a team - it was the smallest crowd this year.

The Breakers were three from seven at home going into the game and are now three from 10 all-up.

They had plenty of early looks, but it was Gary Boodnikoff who opened the scoring with a three-shot.

The hosts were unable to convert when the basket was open. Even the free-throw shooting was poor and Cairns led 28-20 at the first break.

In a second half dominated by the whistle, Cairns profited from fast breaks as the Breakers continued to miss too many of their shots.

Dillon Boucher and Mike Chappell had collected three fouls by the main break, and Pero Cameron two, and that handicapped their game as time wound down.

For the Taipans, Aaron Grabau and Marcus Timmons were hot. The visitors had four from beyond the arc by halftime, the Breakers none.

In the third spell the Breakers closed the gap thanks to some energetic rebounding by centre Ben Pepper and the profits made from that by Mike Chappell and Shawn Redhage.

But by the end of the period Redhage and Cameron both had four fouls and, though they had closed to within three points at times, the home side were behind 78-72.

They had some hope with Cameron and Ben Thompson finding the three-point range and Aaron Olson continuing to accumulate points, but the Taipans looked sharper.

Their attack was more organised, their execution better.

For the Breakers, defence has to be a worry, as does their continued failure to match the Australian teams in shooting accuracy.