Basketball: Breakers end road skid

Cedric Jackson went down clutching his left knee with seven minutes to play. Photo / Getty

Breakers 86 Kings 74
The New Zealand Breakers have snapped their losing streak on the road with a big performance in the face of some fourth-quarter adversity.

An 86-74 victory over the Sydney Kings was finished off without the services of influential point guard Cedric Jackson, who went down clutching his left knee with seven minutes to play, having to watch from his teammates seal the win from the bench.

Jackson will be ready for Sunday's game against Melbourne, a clash the Breakers will be going into with confidence after their late output snapped four straight road losses and moved them to 6-4 on the Australian NBL season.

After the Breakers' big men kept them in the contest early, the shooters brought them home; with Corey Webster coming alive in the last five minutes and Everard Bartlett adding key triples to push out what was a watertight margin through the majority of the game.

A veteran of 1000 NBL games, Al Harrington was playing in his last game for Sydney, and threatened to make it one to remember with an adept mix of deep shooting and aggressive attacking.

With Tall Blacks utility Dion Prewster also doing a terrific jack-of-all-trades job for the Kings, Sydney's offence was flowing smoothly and providing quality looks to snare a 40-37 halftime advantage.

It was through strength rather than style that the Breakers kept themselves in touch.

The Breakers' usual high-octane offence was stuttering, with Webster cold to begin the game as the visitors went at a 35% shooting clip in the first half, including 1/12 from deep.

However, a massive 28-14 advantage on the glass saw many put-back layup opportunities for big men Charles Jackson and Alex Pledger, while Thomas Abercrombie also found himself dragging down several boards.

Just as the Breakers finally started to find their shooting stroke and offensive rhythm, injury struck - sending their star distributor to the bench in pain, having racked up 14 points, seven rebounds and seven dimes.

With the other Jackson - Charles - also hitting the bench due to foul trouble after a fine stint, the Breakers needed someone to step up, and found it in Webster and Bartlett whose crucial buckets secured the win.

Webster ended with 17 points on 7/23 shooting, Bartlett had 13 while Pledger (14 points, nine rebounds) and Abercrombie (11 points and a career-high 15 boards) all made significant impressions.

The Breakers now return home to take on Melbourne United on Sunday in a highly anticipated rematch of the clash which ended in a refereeing controversy earlier this month.