Basketball: Breakers go down by point

The miserable season continued for the Breakers last night as they went down to bottom-placed Cairns Taipans 106-105 at Trusts Stadium in Henderson.

A spirited final-quarter rally saw the home side almost overtake the visitors.

Poor shooting in the first half let the Breakers down.

They took time to warm up, with Mike Chappell eventually firing from the free-throw line followed by field goals as the Taipans clocked up fouls - Tony Rampton, Anthony Stewart and Melvin Thomas all sitting on three early in the game.

Stewart set out on a three-point scoring spree for Cairns to give them a 30-27 advantage at the end of the quarter. Pero Cameron, coming off the bench towards the end of the quarter, came through with five points.

Thomas was outstanding in the next 12 minutes, and coupled with Stewart's shooting, had Cairns out to 59-42 at the break.

The third-quarter blues that have plagued the Breakers in their recent games was in the making again as Stewart hit a career milestone of 1000 points to put Cairms out to a 21-point lead.

The vocal crowd of more than 2000 then witnessed some of the best basketball from the Breakers for some time as they bridged the gap with a spree of three-pointers from Cameron and Aaron Olsen.

Going into the final quarter Cairns were ahead 84-78.

A fired-up Breakers then lost possession at vital times when they could have taken the lead.

Right on fulltime Cameron hit a three-pointer, but once again it was too late.