Basketball: Breakers strangled by Kings defence

By JULIE ASH

Sydney Kings coach Brian Goorjian believes it will be crucial for the New Zealand Breakers to win at home if they are to succeed in securing a playoff spot in the Australian national basketball league.

Goorjian's Kings handed the Breakers their fourth loss of the season at Waitakere's Trusts stadium on Saturday night, coming from behind to take the match 108-94.

After a promising start the Breakers fell victim to the defending champions' suffocating defence in the second half.

The Breakers led 30-22 and 55-51 in the first two quarters but couldn't maintain their momentum as the Kings surged to an 80-73 lead at three-quarter time, which they extended in the final quarter.

Kings guard C.J. Bruton proved unstoppable with 24 points while Luke Martin and Ben Knight each contributed 20 points.

Martin was also damaging on defence.

For the Breakers, Ben Pepper was the best of the scorers, landing 22.

Although his side emerged easily as the victors, Goorjian, who is also the Boomers' coach, had plenty of praise for the Breakers.

"I look at those guys who are playing out there and I have played against them as the Australian coach, they have played against Italy, they have been in stadiums that have gone absolutely nuts and they have performed.

"I like [Shawn] Redhage and I like [Mike] Chappell, so if you have got two good imports ... then you look at their Australian content, [Ben] Thompson, does a good job for them and this has been a real good job for [Ben] Pepper. Anyone that is a Tall Black has my respect."

Having dropped one place from fifth to sixth on the table, the Breakers head to Australia tomorrow for Wednesday night's match against Wollongong before returning to Auckland to face the Brisbane Bullets on Saturday night.

The match against Wollongong is just their second away match in eight games.

"The one thing I would say would be hard about being in this league as a New Zealander is the travel," Goorjian said.

"That is a worry for them coming up. I think the losses here really hurt them. I can understand it is hard to travel. For them to go playoff-bound or wherever they want to get to ... I think they'll win games here but they're going to have to win on the road."

While disappointed not to have backed up their 96-94 win over the Kings in the second round of the competition, Breakers coach Frank Arsego concedes that the opposing defence was impressive.

"In the end both players [Luke Martin and C.J. Bruton] were very instrumental in their success. To sum it up in the second half they got open shots, the shots we made were under pressure the whole time. We just couldn't do enough work to get ourselves open.

"I think what happened was we lost our way. We couldn't find someone who could play through that intensity and that stifling defence to continue the work.

"We just have to make some better decisions when we get tired."

Although they are now sixth in the 11-team competition, three of the four teams the Breakers have played are in the top four.

"At some point [in] time we have got to start winning some games on the road.

"If we are good enough to get to Wollongong and play the game of our life we'll have four wins and fours losses, which is a pretty credible effort," said Arsego.

"Our challenges will be when some of the other teams come to town and that is when we will really know whether we are in the mix or not. At the moment it is a fair start, you'd like to win a couple more games at home obviously ... but I know we can do the right sort of things on the road to be successful."