A poor start cost the New Zealand Breakers dearly as they went down for the third time this season to the NBL's high-flying Perth Wildcats.
The Wildcats went out to a 17-2 lead early in the first quarter and, despite the Breakers getting back within seven points at one stage through some strong defence, they couldn't get their offence going and Perth ran out 71-62 winners.
Led by James Ennis on offence and Damian Martin on defence, the win took Perth's record to 12 wins from 13, while leaving the defending champions at four wins from 13.
Mika Vukona scored the first basket for the Breakers but Perth scored the next 17 points, the Breakers finding it impossible to convert their early chances into points despite several offensive rebounds, ending the first quarter down by 10.
The Breakers managed to find some offence in the second quarter, mainly through Vukona, but Ennis began to get hot in the last few minutes and landed a long three-pointer on the buzzer to take Perth to a 49-33 lead at halftime.
The home team came out much stronger on defence after the break, preventing Perth scoring for six minutes in the third quarter.
But after a brief scoring spree from Tom Abercrombie brought the Breakers within seven points, they found similar problems with the Wildcats' defence and several points from bench big man Matt Knight took the Wildcats back out to 13.
The Breakers again closed within eight in the final quarter but Perth always seemed to have the game in control.
Knight said the team did well to regather itself after the Breakers' third-quarter comeback.
"We knew they'd come out and make a run - they're a really good team," he said.
"We tried to slow them down and I think we did a pretty good job."
Vukona was the top Breakers pointscorer with 16, ahead of Abercrombie on 15.
"We just couldn't put the ball in the hoop tonight," Abercrombie said.
