The losing streak continues for NZ Breakers, who have fallen 76-70 to Sydney Kings in their Australian NBL showdown at Bendigo on Tuesday.
While the Breakers put forth one of their better performances - particularly at the defensive end - of the last couple of weeks against the red-hot Kings, it wasn't enough to prevent an eighth consecutive defeat.
Coming into the match riding an 11-game win streak, the Kings were able to keep the Breakers at arm's length for the majority of the contest, as the NZ side finished strong to win the fourth quarter, but not the match.
Yet again, Yanni Wetzell was the best of the Breakers, finishing with a hefty double-double of 22 points on 8/10 shooting and 14 rebounds.
Finn Delany added 18 points, five boards and five assists, while French 'Next Star' posted an inefficient 15 points.
"It goes without saying but it was one of our better games defensively," said Breakers coach Dan Shamir after the game.
"Yanni had a great game rebounding with a lot of great rebounds in traffic and also played the right way offensively many minutes of the game to create a lot of good looks. With the way the Kings defend we were able to create space, and create shots.
"We didn’t make our shots and you can't really control that. Maybe we could have created more cuts for Yanni like we had in a few moments and settled less for threes, but the way they defend you need to make some shots. We just didn't make them today."
The Breakers move on to play their penultimate game of the season against Tasmania JackJumpers on Friday.
