Basketball: Late foul call hurts Breakers

The Breakers led the Taipans by eight points heading into the final quarter. Photo / Getty Images

It can be hard to take positives out of a gut-wrenching loss in the dying seconds of a game but that was all the Breakers could focus on following their 80-78 defeat to the Cairns Taipans last night.

The Breakers were leading with 13 seconds remaining before a contentious offensive foul call on CJ Bruton handed the Taipans a chance they eagerly took. A last-second three-point attempt by Daryl Corletto missed and the New Zealand team was left to ponder back-to-back defeats after leading by 11 points in the final quarter at the Cairns Convention Centre.

Breakers' guard Cedric Jackson questioned the foul call on Bruton which was the final nail in his side's coffin. ``We were right in the game. We had the ball with 13 seconds to go and we got a foul call from hell and that pretty much put the game out of reach,'' Jackson said.

"We're disappointed about it but there are a lot of things we did really well in that game. A lot of our other guys stepped up. Josh Bloxham stepped up very well for us, I'm very proud of him. The bench stepped up _ Daryl Corletto. Tom Abercrombie, he was on fire, we had a job to get him the ball as much as possible. There were a few times when were getting hit a lot but we just weren't getting the calls and we just played through it but they caught us at the end.''

Abercrombie was the Breakers' highest scorer, hitting five of seven three-pointers in his 21-point total.

Another highlight was the rebound effort against last season's beaten finalists _ 40-24 to the Breakers.

"Our confidence levels are still high,'' American import Jackson said. "We knew that game was in our hands to win.''

In an intense match which featured several collisions, Dillon Boucher was among the worst affected. He landed heavily under the rim but returned with a knee strapped.

Breakers' coach Andrej Lemanis lamented his side's missed opportunities. "I thought we were a little unlucky on that foul call that caused the turnover [on Bruton], I'd like to see that again on video. But it's how you get to that point that is probably more relevant to us,'' he said.

The Breakers quickly have to turn their attentions to the Townsville Crocodiles at Auckland's Vector Arena on Thursday night. It will be their chance to snap a mini-slump after their loss to the Wollongong Hawks at the North Shore Events Centre last week.