Breakers lose as rollercoaster season continues

The frustrating, stop-start nature of the Breakers’ Australian NBL season continued in Melbourne last night as Mody Maor’s men dropped the second half of their round double to the home-town Phoenix.

Following their meritorious Thursday night victory over the Adelaide 36ers in Christchurch, this 91-79 defeat to South East Melbourne was another blow for the undermanned Breakers who now fall to 4-8 for the season. The Phoenix improve to 7-6 after storming home 49-34 over the final two quarters.

The Breakers’ tough schedule showed as they got a bad case of the wobbles late at the graveyard that is John Cain Arena – they have now lost 14 of their last 15 at the venue – to allow the Phoenix to come roaring back from a 41-45 halftime deficit.

The Kiwi club still has not won back-toback games this season, and you could see why in this clash as they struggled to get the job done without injured starters Zylan Cheatham and Will McDowell-White

Izayah Le’afa paced the Breakers with 17 points in under 28 minutes.

Imports Parker Jackson-Cartwright and Anthony Lamb added 14 points apiece, but were quiet in the second half as they appeared to tire under a heavy workload. Lamb added 7 boards and 4 assists, while Jackson-Cartwright dished out 7 dimes.

Lithuanian Next Star Mantas Rubštavičius showed some encouraging signs with 11 points (on 4-of-6 shooting) off the bench, but Finn Delany (6 points), Mangok Matthiang (8 points, 8 rebounds) and Tom Abercrombie (6 points, 4 boards) were just too quiet for their team’s needs.