Taipans 122
Breakers 111
KEY POINTS:
The full-house signs were up at the North Shore Events Centre last night but the Breakers bombed in front of their biggest home crowd in recent memory.
They didn't quite stink out the joint but they came pretty close. It will interesting if the club is forced to learn the harsh lesson that it is one thing getting punters through the door once, but quite another getting them to come back regularly.
It was a night when nothing quite worked for the Breakers against a Taipans side that have no fear of crossing the Tasman after notching their third victory in as many trips.
Breakers' money man Kirk Penney was strangely array in the final quarter, his run of misses forestalling any late comeback, but the team were really undone by the horror 37-25 foul count that went against them.
That allowed the Taipans 50 shots from the free throw line and they connected with 41. By contrast, the Breakers made 14 of just 16 attempts from the charity stripe.
The incessant whistle saw Oscar Forman and Dillon Boucher in early foul trouble and did plenty to put the Breakers off their rhythm.
But they couldn't blame the officiating for the succession of missed lay-ups and open shots that allowed the Taipans to take the game away in the second half.
Rick Rickert had a 25-point 11 rebound double double and Penney (23), CJ Bruton (25) and Phill Jones (24) also scored heavily. But the Breakers struggled to contain the taller Taipans at the defensive end and were out-rebounded 37-31.
The Breakers made a curiously flat start, slumping to an early 14-point deficit. Penney seemed particularly out of sorts, conceding two early turnovers and missing with his first two shots as the Taipans raced away to a 25-11 lead.
A spell on the bench seemed to light Penney's fire and he connected with his first three-pointer soon after re-entering to spark a Breakers' rally.
They drew level mid-way through the second quarter when Paul Henare picked off an errant pass and streaked away for an easy lay-up.
Bruton then got into his now customary spat, this time with Aaron Grabrau, but the pushing and shoving served only to fire up the Breakers' point guard and he responded with two quick threes and the Breakers had a handy eight-point lead at the break.
But Stephen Black quickly nailed a brace of threes to erase the deficit. The Taipans led by seven for much of the quarter until a burst of points from Bruton closed the gap but a 35-23 third quarter to the visitors meant they still led by four going into the final quarter.
That led quickly blew out to 14 as the Breakers failed to produce the expected rally. A late burst from Jones made it interesting but the Breakers had left themselves too much to do too late.
