KEY POINTS:
Kings 109 Breakers 88
Star New Zealand Breakers forward Carlos Powell had little to celebrate tonight despite being called in to replace Jelani Gardner in the Australian National Basketball League (ANBL) All-Star game on November 25.
For the second ANBL match in a row, the Breakers were
overpowered, going down 88-109 to the Sydney Kings in Auckland.
The Breakers have won just twice against the Kings in 11 encounters and just once in five games at home.
Having lost 99-113 to the Cairns Taipans in their last match, the Breakers were out to redeem themselves but found themselves out-played and out-muscled tonight.
Such was the Kings' all court dominance, their leading players feasted almost equally in the game with forward Rodney Elliot grabbing the lion's share of 19 points followed by Mark Worthington 16, Ian Crosswhite on 15 and 14 each from Russell Hinder and guard Jason Smith.
Powell, as usual, was the Breakers' most dangerous player, grabbing the game's high of 28 points with teammate Aaron Olson in close attendance with 24.
Having muscled into a 35-24 lead at the end of the first quarter, the Kings led 61-46 at halftime as the Breakers struggled to get clean sight at the hoop.
At the other end, the Kings never had a problem picking up the rebounds, sometimes even having three bites at the cherry before sinking a basket.
B y the finish, they had built their winning margin up to 21 points despite Elliot fouling out with just under six minutes of play left.
After losing their last two matches, Elliot said the Kings had come out to play tonight.
"We played very hard for 48 minutes tonight.
"I think the last couple of games, we were playing very hard for just two quarters sometimes and not finishing at all.
"Today, we did a good job of finishing these guys off."
Powell said the team had come out a bit flat and he thought the Breakers had let the referees get to them a bit.
" But we are a better team than that and can't blame anybody but ourselves."
As to his elevation into the All Star game, an underwhelmed Powell said: "I dunno what to say - I should have been in from the start."
The Breakers, who started the night in eighth place on the table, now have a season record of four wins and seven losses from 11 matches.
- NZPA