Kings Pummel Breakers

After a thrilling three point victory over the Wollongong Hawks last night the Sydney Kings have backed that up with a convincing 106-88 win over the undermanned New Zealand Breakers this evening at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

Sydney would have been entitled to take this match a little easier than usual after their hard fought win over the Hawks, but they showed why they are the three time defending champions as they professionally disposed of the Breakers in what was dubbed a ‘danger game’ by coach Brian Goorjian.

CJ Bruton continued his recent run of hot form with 20 points for the Kings, while rookie of the year candidate Mark Worthington was strong once again picking up 16 points and eight rebounds.

The Breakers went into the game without injured pair Rich Melzer and Adrian Majstrovich and their absence showed with the visitors struggling to get anything going at the offensive end all game.

The only player to break the defensive shackles for New Zealand was Aaron Olson who top scored for the game with an impressive 30 points and surprisingly brought down 10 rebounds for a rare double double.

After witnessing a traditional Haka before the match Aaron Olson, a New Zealand Tall Black, got the Breakers off to the perfect start hitting a long bomb to open the game, but that was the only real joy they would get in the first quarter as the Kings young brigade took over with Luke Kendall and David Barlow doing most of the damage, each landing three pointers to send Sydney into the first break ahead 32-26.

Worthington and Rolan Roberts helped the Kings extend their lead to double digits early in the second term netting 10 quick points between them, but soon after the big American picked up his fourth foul of the game leaving coach Brian Goorjian with no other option than to bench his star import.

His absence seemed to have no effect on Sydney though as they powered on without him limiting the Breakers to just 13 points for the quarter to take a massive 20 point lead into half time (59-39).

New Zealand managed to hang tough in the third term mainly due to the efforts of Olson who scored eight points for the period to help the Breakers cut the deficit to 15 points heading into the final quarter (82-67).

The injury weakened visitors continued to reel the Kings in early in the fourth period getting to within nine points, but a turnaround three point basket from Worthington as the shot clock expired midway through the quarter sparked Sydney back into action and they went on to record a comfortable 18 point win that entitles them to hold on to the Bondi Shield for yet another game.

The victory keeps Sydney (8-2) in second place on the NBL ladder and they will be keen to extend upon their five game winning streak when they welcome their cross city rivals, the West Sydney Razorbacks, to the Kingdome next Saturday night.

New Zealand (3-8) on the other hand continue to wallow at the wrong end of the competition table and will face another tough challenge next Sunday afternoon when they travel to Adelaide to play the league leading 36ers.

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