Breakout Performance by Ousmane Dieng in Bendigo

The day didn’t turn out how the Sky Sport Breakers in Bendigo against the South East Melbourne Phoenix but Ousmane Dieng delivered another standout performance as he continues to improve game after game.

The Phoenix came into the clash having lost seven of their past eight games including Thursday's Throwdown to Melbourne United while the Breakers are on their own losing run having lost six in-a-row to be anchored to the bottom of the table.

It was always going to be fascinating how both teams came out to perform in Bendigo and it was a fun affair especially in the first half with Ousmane Dieng delivering 17 points to keep the Breakers in touch of the Phoenix.

South East Melbourne just had too much, though, and after going on a run of 13 straight points in the second quarter, they went on a 12-0 run to start the second half on the way to the 10-point win.

After his 17 points in the first half, Dieng finished with 22 for the game for New Zealand along with six rebounds and five assists. Tom Abercrombie put up 17 points, Yanni Wetzell 14 and Finn Delany 12 to go with six assists and five rebounds.

Hugo Besson added eight points, three rebounds and three assists for the Breakers, Will McDowell-White nine points, three boards and two assists, Peyton Siva five points and two rebounds, and Rob Loe two points.

Breakers coach Dan Shamir was happy with parts of what his team did again, but when they are conceding so many points it makes everything difficult.

"In the big picture everyone understands our situation and we have a few more games to play, and it's mostly frustrating," Shamir said. 

"In the big picture, we're not stopping so we are being pretty consistent at giving up 25 points a quarter and that's frustrating. We are giving up a lot of cheap things so that's the story of the losses when you are not stopping, then everything becomes obviously harder.

"In the next three games that we have to play, I doubt it that dramatic things will change, however, our players do have character and they come to compete and they all want to play until the last possession. 

"We did have a few good moments of ball movement and good shots that we managed to produce and overall, we had pretty good percentages from the floor when we didn’t turn it over. The story is defence."

Zhou Qi set the tone for the night scoring first for the Phoenix and soon after Xavier Munford spearheaded a run of seven straight points and South East Melbourne was leading 9-3.

Qi was feeling it and scored a couple of more times down low, but the Breakers were warming to the task and it was Ousmane Dieng who hit the floor to lead their charge.

He knocked down a couple of threes for eight points and the Breakers went into quarter-time leading 25-23 as a result.

Tom Abercrombie knocked down a triple to start the second term to stretch the New Zealand lead to five but then South East Melbourne responded firstly through Qi once more as he continued his big afternoon.

The Phoenix rattled off 13 consecutive points to lead by six before New Zealand got a steadier through Dieng who converted a three-point play. Abercrombie nailed his second three and Dieng also connected from downtown again for 17 first half points to keep the Breakers close.

But on the back of a combined 31 points from Qi and Munford in the half, the Phoenix went into the major break leading 52-44 with Izayah Le'afa also hitting a couple of long balls heading into half-time.

If the game was on the line at half-time, it didn’t stay that way for long with South East Melbourne dominating the start of the third period in remarkable fashion.

With Munford, Qi and Mitch Creek all getting going, the Phoenix put up the first 12 points before finally the Breakers scored on a Yanni Wetzell putback almost four minutes into the half.

The Phoenix weren’t done yet and a rim rattling putback dunk from Brandon Ashley kept the energy high and by three quarter-time they led 77-54.

The Phoenix cruised to the 10-point win in the finish even though the Breakers did well in the fourth term putting up 35 points to at least finish on a high with the best final quarter of any team this season.

The Breakers will remain in Bendigo to host the Syndney Kings now on Tuesday night.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 19

SKY SPORT BREAKERS 89 (Dieng 22, Abercrombie 17, Wetzell 14)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 99 (Munford 25, Qi 22, Le'afa 18) 

BOX SCORE