Basketball: Cameron sharp before Breakers' trials

By PETER JESSUP

The Breakers hold trials today to fill the last spots in their roster for the Australian league, and the return of their star Pero Cameron to local league action at the weekend added some momentum.

Cameron shot 16 yesterday as the Waikato Titans sank Wellington for the second time in their weekend encounters, depth the telling factor in a 90-65 win at a packed Te Awamutu Events Centre after they had scraped home 84-80 in the first round of the double in Wellington.

"We ran them to death - that's the name of our game," said coach Jeff Green after a spread of scorers never let up on a tiring Saints side.

The visitors had the better of the end of the second quarter, turnovers and poor execution under the basket allowing the Saints to close up on the early Titans lead to be 36-42 at halftime.

Cameron came on and dropped clean three-point shots, commanded the centre of the court to distribute or drive to the basket himself and generally turned things around.

"The others had done the hard work when he came on but he produced some magic against tired players," Green said of Cameron. "He's working his way back."

Towards the end the Saints just could not get the ball.

Cameron said he could not believe how open he was left late in the game.

"I got six shots out of six at one stage and that was against some quality guards - it was great. That's the game we like to play - when our systems are running up-tempo and we're pushing the ball then we lift the intensity, be the fastest team in the fourth quarter when the opposition are dead on their feet."

The Tall Blacks and Breakers captain said he was still suffering some minor injury twinges but felt that training his way through, with physiotherapy, was the best way to overcome them. He was looking forward to getting on court with the Breakers for the first time at the North Shore Events Centre today and soaking up what he could from the three "killer B" Australians, Ben Melmeth, Blake Truslove and Brad Williams.

"They have a lot to teach us about mental toughness, hardness on defence. We've already felt Frank Arsego's effect at the Titans," Cameron said of the Breakers' assistant who came from the Australian Institute of Sport.

Auckland are second on the table behind the unbeaten champions after completing their third successful double-header - 89-79 at home to Otago on Friday night and 69-68 away to Taranaki on Saturday.

Casey Frank had 20 points and 16 rebounds on Friday and top-scored for the Stars again on Saturday with 16 as the cash-strapped Airs pushed until the final buzzer.

Auckland guard Lindsay Tait continued his good form with 26 points, the Airs' big import Link Abrams kept to 18.

Otago import Mike Pegues had 39 points and made seven steals against Auckland and 40 points when the Nuggets beat North Harbour 94-90 on Saturday. He leads the league in scoring with an average of just over 30 a game.

The biggest performance of the weekend was from Rams forward John Whorton. He scored 21 points in a 82-96 loss to the Jets, then a season-best by an individual of 50 points in the 99-94 win over Hawkes Bay.

They came from 19 field goals, including one three-pointer, and 11 free-throws.