Basketball: Turnover heavy Breakers crash to another defeat

Tai Webster of the Breakers looks to pass the ball during the NBL Cup match between the Illawarra Hawks and New Zealand Breakers. Photo / Getty

New competition, same result.

The New Zealand Breakers have begun the new NBL Cup with a 102-88 defeat to the Illawarra Hawks.

The Breakers went into their opening game of the Melbourne hub tournament with just one win to their name in their first five games of the NBL season.

The side gave up a staggering 22 turnovers in the defeat.

Lamar Patterson scored 13 points before injuring his knee during the third quarter and sat out the rest of the game. Corey Webster scored 22 points and secured five rebounds.

Dan Shamir's side didn't leave the game empty-handed, earning 1.5 competition points.

Teams don't just get awarded points for winning games but also get 0.5 points for a drawn quarter and one point for scoring the most points in each quarter.

It still leaves the Breakers on the bottom of the NBL Cup after one game. They next face the Sydney Kings on Thursday.

"The second quarter hurt us a lot. We gave up 33 points, many of them came from our turnovers," Shamir said.

"We came, I feel, with the right mentality and attitude but we broke very easily in that second quarter. This was another tough day."