Basketball: Crocs beat Breakers

TOWNSVILLE - The Townsville Crocodiles will start 2005 in the NBL top eight after beating the New Zealand Breakers 114-103 in their clash at the Swamp tonight.

It was the second straight time the Crocs had won the New Year's Eve game between the teams and the defeat left the Breakers sitting at the bottom of the table.

Casey Calvary led the home side with 25 points and John Rillie hit 23 in a solid team effort.

Import Mike Chappell came to life in the final period to finish with 21 points while centre Ben Pepper scored all but one of his 19 points in a dominant first half.

New Zealand led by as many as ten during the second quarter but Townsville went on an 11-0 run midway through the term to take a lasting lead.

Despite the win, Crocs coach Ian Stacker admitted his team is was still struggling to put a full game together.

"We still aren't playing 48 minutes of good basketball but we played well enough to get the win, Stacker said.

The victory kept their season series alive after the Breakers won the first game across the Tasman last month.

"It was an important game for New Zealand and they threw everything at us but we didn't give in," Stacker said.

Calvary finished the game strongly and also collected 12 boards despite conceding ten centimetres to Pepper in their match-up in the middle.

It's a challenge for me and I accept it," Calvary said.

"I came out and had a much better second half than first half."

The nine-day break over Christmas was vital for the American who used the time to recover from a minor ankle fracture.

"It's been an issue in terms of my athleticism but it's getting better day by day," Calvary said.

Breakers coach Frank Arsego said his men had to work out ways to respond when teams put them under pressure.

"There are times when we do lose our way," Arsego said.

"They really cranked up the defence and we couldn't quite hang in there."

After hitting nine of ten from the field in the first half, Pepper added just a solitary free throw to his points total in the second stanza.

"He carries an incredibly high workload for us, that can be quite taxing on a big man," Arsego said.

"He's given 100 per cent but we need a couple of other guys supporting him when he's having down time."

- AAP