Dieng fires for Breakers in loss to Kings

Next Star Ousmane Dieng delivered a breakout performance but it wasn’t quite enough for the Sky Sport Breakers to pull off a second remarkable comeback victory against the Sydney Kings.

The Breakers had memories of scoring 18 of the last 19 points just three weeks ago also at Qudos Bank Arena against the Kings to overrun their opponents. 

There were signs of that happening again on Sunday with Ousmane Dieng catching fire with three three-point bombs to open the fourth quarter and cut the deficit to six.

However, New Zealand couldn’t quite close the deal this time around with the Kings claiming the 84-65 victory.

Ousmane Dieng hit 4/8 from downtown having gone 6/39 for the season coming into the game for 14 points and five rebounds for New Zealand. Yanni Wetzell added 16 points, Finn Delany 11 and Peyton Siva 11.

Hugo Besson finished with four points and four rebounds, Jeremiah Martin three points and two assists, Kyrin Galloway three points, and Will McDowell-White three points and three rebounds.

Breakers coach Dan Shamir was disappointed to not see the same energy and effort that he did in Wednesday's ultra-impressive win over the Hawks.

"Disappointing is an understatement. A few days ago we played extremely hard with a lot of great possessions on effort and defence touching the ball, and getting in passing lanes and making our opponents feel us," Shamir said.

"We didn’t do it at the beginning of this game and gave up 50 points. We struggled defensively the whole game with a little bit of shot making, Sydney's schemes are obviously to pack the paint and challenge you to shoot. 

"If you are making them then things open up a bit, if not then you have to win in an ugly by defending, running and getting easy points. Once we didn’t do that, we fell down 20."

The Breakers came into the game full of confidence after Wednesday's impressive win over the Illawarra Hawks, but it was a rough start on Sunday with the Kings opening up a 22-point advantage through the second quarter.

After Sydney led 16-6 during the first term, the Breakers did work back into the contest with a Yanni Wetzell and-one and then three balls to Kyrin Galloway and Peyton Siva, but the Kings still led 25-16 by quarter-time.

Sydney then started the second period with a 15-2 streak to lead by 22 but the Breakers found a way to steady the ship. It began with a couple of threes to Finn Delany and then Wetzell ended up with 12 points for the half with the deficit at the break 16.

New Zealand then locked in defensively in the third period holding the Kings to just the nine points after they had 51 in the first half. Will McDowell-White, Ousmane Dieng, Siva and Delany all connected from downtown as well and it was just a nine-point deficit at three quarter-time.

It was Dieng who began to feel it knocking down three triples in the first three and-a-half minutes of the fourth quarter to make it a seven-point ball game.

The Breakers had all the momentum by that stage but they couldn’t quite keep it going and this time, the Kings scored 15 of the game's last 18 points to claim the 19-point victory.

The Breakers are back up next Sunday against the Cairns Taipans in the Far North.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 10

SKY SPORT BREAKERS 65 (Wetzell 16, Dieng 14, Siva 11, Delany 11) 

SYDNEY KINGS 84 (Vasiljevic 23, Adams 17, Martin 13)

BOX SCORE