Weary Breakers well below their best in loss to Melbourne United

At Christchurch Arena, Christchurch: Melbourne United 77 (Xavier Rathan-Mayes 20, Brad Newley 14, Chris Goulding 14) Breakers 65 (Jarrell Brantley 17, Izayah Le’afa 13) 1Q: 18-13, HT: 43-30, 3Q: 56-47.

A promising season is threatening to unravel for the New Zealand Breakers.

The Breakers crashed to their fifth loss in their last seven games in front of 5217 fans in Christchurch on Thursday night, beaten 77-65 by Melbourne United.

New Zealand still find themselves firmly in the finals hunt, but slip to a 13-8 record. With seven round games left, they desperately need to regain their mojo and get back on track – something they’ll have to do without standout American guard Barry Brown Jr for the next two weeks with a groin injury.

It’s been a hectic old schedule for the Breakers to open the New Year and may have been a factor for their sluggish showing in the Garden City.

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This was their fourth game in nine days, which included a clash in Perth against the Wildcats on Tuesday night. The Breakers trekked back to Christchurch on Wednesday with a quick turnaround for the Melbourne game.

There’s no let-up either with home games around the corner against Cairns (on Sunday) and the Illawarra Hawks (next Thursday) at Auckland’s Spark Arena.

The Breakers shot an ugly 21/63 (33%) from the field and committed 14 turnovers in the loss.

They will be sick of the sight of Melbourne’s Canadian guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes.

After torching them for 33 points, nine assists, and five rebounds in the season opener back in October, he again had his way.

Rathan-Mayes was the best player on court, leading the way for the visitors with a game-high 20 points on 7/11 shooting, to go with six boards and three assists.

Travel fatigue may have been an issue early on with the Breakers rusty to begin the game.

They missed eight of their first 10 shots from the field and couldn’t get much going on offence.

Rejuvenated Melbourne, who had won six of their past eight contests, were sharper in the first quarter, jumping out to an 18-13 lead by the end of the term.

Melbourne fed off that pleasing start, pushing their lead out to double digits midway through the second quarter.

A triple from Rathan-Mayes had Melbourne rolling at 30-17 with the Breakers calling a quick time out as they searched for answers.

Rathan-Mayes was a handful in the first half, putting up 13 points on 5/7 shooting.

American big Dererk Pardon who was so effective for the Breakers in Tuesday’s loss in Perth, posting 28 points and 12 rebounds, was kept quiet by Melbourne.

Pardon was held scoreless until connecting with a pair of free throws in the final minute of the first half. He finished with seven points and six rebounds in 28 minutes.

Both teams were down on personnel with the Breakers without Brown Jr, who suffered a groin injury in the narrow away loss to Perth.

Melbourne were also missing frontcourt duo Isaac Humphries (knee) and David Barlow (concussion).

The Melburnians took a deserved 13 point lead into the halftime break, restricting the Breakers to 30 points on 8/28 shooting from the field and 2/10 from three point land.

New Zealand trailed by nine entering the final quarter with Izayah Le’afa providing some much-needed energy and scoring punch for the Kiwi side. Le’afa was one of the few Breakers to stand out, finishing with 13 points in another encouraging showing from the 26-year-old.

Melbourne never allowed the Breakers to get on a hot streak or within striking distance late in the game, responding at the other end of the court.