Gold Coast 110
Breakers 96
Life just got a touch uncomfortable for the Breakers.
Last night's surprise home defeat at the hands of the Gold Coast Blaze dropped the Breakers to 4-4 on the season, and into a mid-table log jam alongside Townsville and Adelaide.
With a trip to high fliers Perth on Sunday followed by a return match in Auckland next Thursday to come, what had seemed a fairly comfortable grip on a playoff spot has slipped considerably.
It was hard to see last night's comprehensive loss coming. The Blaze went into the match with an 0-4 mark on the road, and the Breakers had yet to taste defeat in their home gym this season.
But it turned out to be a night when statistics didn't mean much. The Blaze shot the lights out to rip apart a Breakers defence that had conceded only 86 points on its worst night out this season in Melbourne.
Aided by a blistering 39-point second quarter, the Blaze cruised past that mark inside three terms.
"They made some pretty tough ones but what you need to do is change your game plan a wee bit," Breakers forward Tony Ronaldson said.
"They just kept beating us the same way. You need to change it up a little bit but we didn't really have any aggression defensively. Offensively we scored 96 points, it's not like we struggled. But it is about getting the stops and being able to take some personal pride in stopping your man individually."
The Blaze rode an amazing 10/10 three-point shooting performance to a 17 point halftime lead.
The Breakers were guilty of offering the likes of James Harvey, Adam Gibson and Ayinde Ubaka too many open looks in the early going, but even when they tightened their defence, the shots just kept pouring in.
Overall the Blaze shot 20/28 for the half at a 71 per cent success rate that was far too hot for the Breakers to handle.
Gibson lead the visitors with 18 first half points, including 4/4 three pointers, the last two of which were freakish shots.
The Breakers started well enough, edging to an early six point lead that was pulled back to just a point by quarter time. A 6-0 run to start the second quarter extended the lead to seven before a Gibson three sparked the visitors' remarkable scoring run.
The Blaze cooled off a touch in the third quarter, landing 3/6 three point attempts, but they still did enough to keep their foot firmly on the Breakers' throat.
Back-to-back Ronaldson threes and another from Corey Webster cut what had been a 23-point deficit to 14 mid-way through the final quarter but the Blaze steadied the ship and cruised to a deserved victory.
"We don't have any time to dwell on it or worry about it," Ronaldson said.
"We fly to Perth and we don't get a practice session in, but we have to go over there and change the way we play.
"We'll put a plan in place for Perth and hopefully we'll stick to it. When you have a plan in place and you stick to it and you lose you can wear it but tonight we didn't do it."
