Matt Mooney of the Breakers in action. Photo: AAP / www.photosport.nz
The New Zealand Breakers were beaten 83-74 by the Bullets in their Australian NBL basketball clash on Wednesday night in Brisbane.
The Breakers remain second from bottom in the standings in ninth place. The Cairns Taipans are last with the Bullets seventh.
The Breakers opened strongly by building an early six-point lead, but Brisbane's consistent scoring, led by Casey Prather's game-high 31 points, proved too much to overcome.
With Matt Mooney and Tacko Fall in early foul trouble, New Zealand struggled to find a rhythm, while turnovers proved costly - the Bullets capitalising with 14 points to the Breakers' two.
Mooney top scored for the Breakers with 21 points including three triples, while the bench provided valuable contributions with 27 points led by Karim Lopez' eight points and strong rebounding from Sam Mennenga (nine boards).
Head coach Petteri Koponen said his side didn't execute well enough.
"We couldn't find solutions tonight on offence and they made it difficult for us. We had many empty possessions, wide open shots and couldn't score the ball," he said.
"We kept them to 83 points but in this league you need to score points to win and we weren't good enough.
"We collectively need a much better effort. We need to go on and get better and enjoy fighting together."
The Breakers next match is against the table topping Illawarra Hawks in Wollongong on Saturday night at 7.30pm (NZT).