Basketball: Lucky break for Breakers as fate fingers top Croc

New Zealand Breakers' chances of scoring two consecutive wins in the Australian National Basketball League for the first time this season increased this week, with their opponents tonight losing one of their big men to injury.

Townsville Crocodiles centre Greg Vanderjagt broke his finger in a freak accident at practice on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old Vanderjagt injured the finger in the game against Adelaide last Friday and then broke it on Tuesday, forcing him out of action for about three weeks.

The club started looking for a replacement yesterday.

Crocodiles chief executive Ian Smythe said that while the club was disappointed by the injury setback, they hadn't wasted any time scouting for a replacement to fill the big man position and were confident of making an announcement in the next 48 hours.

"Losing Greg is obviously a setback, but we have a great amount of depth and talent in Daniel [Egan] and Andrew [Rice]," Smythe said.

The Breakers won their second game in the league last week when they beat the Brisbane Bullets 111-105.

A win tonight at the North Shore Events Centre will take their record to three wins and four losses.

Point guard Paul Henare, who scored 24 points, outplayed Brisbane's C. J. Bruton for much of the game and import Carlos Powell was later named the league's player of the week.

If Brian Wethers and Ben Pepper lift their games, the Breakers could pull more off more results like last week's.

Crocodiles' coach Trevor Gleeson has called on his players to play smarter after they were dismantled by Adelaide.

- NZPA