BOXSCORE

A record Vector Arena crowd saw the New Zealand Breakers thrash the visiting Sydney Kings 93-64 to record their fourth-straight win.

Almost 8000 fans crammed into the downtown Auckland stadium, the most ever to attend a basketball game in New Zealand.

None went home disappointed as American Gary Wilkinson scored 18 points to lead a balanced attack.

Tom Abercrombie (16 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists) and Cedric Jackson (10 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals) also led the way for the defending champs, while centre Julian Khazzouh scored 20 points for the Kings.

“It was good fun playing in front of that many people,” said Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis. “We’re glad we could give them a game they could enjoy and go home happy.

“But I thought we were in and out of the game. There were times we showed some Breaker basketball and played well defensively, but other times we were a little all over the place.”

Wilkinson opened his team’s scoring when he tipped in a Mike Vukona miss, but Ben Madgen matched that with a fall-away in the lane.

Treys from Abercrombie and Wilkinson allowed the hosts to open up a seven-point advantage, but a 10-3 run from the Kings quickly locked it up again.

The Breakers were creating twice as many looks at the basket , but were struggling to capitalise with Khazzouh and American Jerai Grant patrolling the paint.

Khazzouh hit consecutive buckets to edge the Kings ahead for the first time early in the second quarter, but a 17-3 outburst gave the Breakers a 45-34 lead to the delight of the deafening crowd.

“We had a two-minute period in the second quarter where we had a good little lead, but then we turned the game,” Sydney coach Ian Robilliard said.

“We made a couple of bad turnovers and bad shot selections that just swung the momentum. For us, it was very disappointing to play like that after a month where we’ve played well.”

Smelling blood in the water, the Breakers applied full-court pressure after the restart and got the margin to 17 points on another Abercrombie trey, effectively ending the contest.

The victors enjoyed a 48-28 superiority in the paint and dished out 26 assists in a fine team performance.

Victory elevated the Breakers to 14-5 for the season ahead of their top-of-the-table clash with Perth Wildcats at North Shore Events Centre next Thursday.

New Zealand Breakers 93 (Wilkinson 18, Abercrombie 16, Jackson 10)
Sydney Kings 64 (Khazzouh 20, Bose 13)

Crowd: 7979 (sell-out) at Vector Arena, Auckland