Basketball: Tigers give Breakers loud wake-up call

SYDNEY - Coach Andrej Lemanis was decidedly unimpressed as his New Zealand Breakers head to Adelaide with an Australian National Basketball League wake-up call ringing in their ears.

The title favourites lost 86-81 to last season's runners-up the Melbourne Tigers, who made it five consecutive wins against the Breakers in their first outing of 2009-2010.

Most experts predicted the Breakers would be too strong at The Cage in Melbourne on Wednesday night, coming off a dominant 95-75 win over Cairns Taipans against a Tigers side shorn of several key players including international Chris Anstey.

Lemanis was quick to point the finger at his side's lack of physicality.

"We got smashed on the glass - they grabbed 44 per cent of the offensive rebounds. They were much more physical than us and desperate for the ball," he said.

Both sides had 43 per cent shooting success from the field but the rebounding stats told the story.

The Breakers secured 21 defensive rebounds while the Tigers grabbed 17 offensive boards. The hosts out-rebounded the Breakers 43-30 in all.

"We're still learning how we need to combat teams like that, but having said that we still had chances to win the game. We missed a couple of open threes, and they hit theirs," Lemanis said.

"Everyone's disappointed, as they should be. We didn't play well at all."

The Breakers led 29-22 at the first quarter break and looked set to take control of the contest.

But sluggish defence allowed the Tigers some easy transition baskets and they quickly hauled back the deficit as the Breakers led just 43-42 at the main break.

The Tigers led throughout the second half, and while two quick three-pointers from veteran Breakers forward Tony Ronaldson in the dying minutes got the visitors within reach, the buffer was too great.

Ronaldson led all scorers with 21 points, with Kirk Penney next best with 16 and new import Awvee Storey chiming in with 10 points and nine rebounds.

Lemanis was encouraged by former NBA player Storey's performance, particularly on defence, and said it boded well for the season.

A key to the Tigers' victory was an effective shutdown of free-scoring Breakers guards Penney (4/15 field goals, 16 points) and CJ Bruton (3/10, 8 points) who dominated against the Taipans.

Mark Worthington led the Tigers' scoring with 17 points.

The Breakers head to Adelaide to face the 36ers tomorrow night before a rematch with the Tigers in Auckland next Thursday.

- NZPA