Breakers suffocated by Snakes

The road woes of the NZ Breakers in the Australian National Basketball League reached five straight in the Snakepit in Cairns last night.

With point guard CJ Bruton the only player to reach double-figures and on the wrong side of a one-sided foul count, the Breakers fell to 0-5 this season away from the friendly confines of the North Shore Events Centre with a 77-64 loss to the Cairns Taipans.

Struggling with leading scorer and reigning league MVP Kirk Penney out and on an off-shooting night, the Breakers (5-6) were still under 50 points midway through the fourth quarter and only a flurry of scorer from bench players saw them lift their output into the 60s.

Dusty Rychart, a former Bay Hawk in the New Zealand NBL, scored a game-high 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting and pulled down 11 rebounds in a double-double performance for Cairns (5-8), while former Breakers import Rich Melzer torched his old club for 17 points and nifty import guard Julien Mills added 13 points and six rebounds.

The Breakers did manage to hold former Tall Blacks shooting guard Phill Jones to five points on 1-of-3 shooting from the field.

Bruton top-scored with 10 points on an anemic shooting night that saw the Breakers score one less point than their previous season-worst offensive output, 65 points against the Wollongong Hawks in round four on October 17, also a road contest. Oscar Forman contributed nine points and Tony Ronaldson and back-up point guard Paul Henare eight points.

The Breakers shot a poor 36 percent (25/70) from the field, 27 percent (7/26) on three-point attempts and were only in the game for brief moments after an early second quarter run put the Taipans up in front of 2673 at the Cairns Convention Centre.

Four starters - Bruton, Forman, Dillon Boucher and Tom Abercrombie - fouled out as the Breakers were whistled for 34 fouls to the Taipans' 18, resulting in a 42-10 disparity at the free-throw line. Cairns, with Rychart and Melzer leading the way inside, out-boarded the Breakers 41-25.

After the game was tied 14-14 after the opening quarter, Cairns put up the first 12 points of the second period to lead 26-14 at the 5:52 mark. In a quarter of mini-runs, the Breakers then reduced the gap to a half-dozen with the next six points before the home side went on an 8-0 run to extend their buffer to 14 points in the minute before halftime.

An indication of how out-of-sorts the Breakers offence was in the first half - scoring just 23 points - was Australian shooting guard John Rillie, picked up by the Breakers only last week as injury cover, led the team with six points at the main break.

The nine second-quarter points were the Breakers' lowest total in a quarter in team history and it contributed to their lowest-ever score in a half of 23 points. Their previous low was 30 against Perth in 2005 and Cairns in 2008.

The Breakers bettered their first half production in the third quarter, closing within as many as five points before trailing by nine with 10 minutes to run.

However, four scoreless minutes to start the fourth, coupled with a Taipans 7-0 run, ended any thoughts of a comeback on the road, putting Cairns up 63-47 with 6:26 remaining.

Last night's loss was the Breakers third straight by double-digits on the road, losing by an average 14.7 points and scoring an average 67.6 points per game during that stretch.

Andrej Lemanis' squad now travels four hours down Bruce Highway to Townsville to take on the Crocodiles (6-6) at The Swamp on Friday night, 10.30pm (NZ time).

Cairns Taipans 77 (Dusty Rychart 19, Rich Melzer 17, Julien Mills 13) NZ Breakers 64 (CJ Bruton 10). 1Q: 14-14, HT: 35-23, 3Q: 56-47.

- © Fairfax NZ News