Breakers lose centre Loe for rest of ANBL season msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Breakers guard Tai Webster.
Photo: Photosport
Despite 34 points from the returning Tai Webster, the New Zealand side were beaten 94-91 by the 36ers in Adelaide on Friday night.
Webster s fifth three-pointer gave the visitors an 82-79 lead late in regulation time, before Adelaide import Donald Sloan responded with 10 seconds remaining.
Both Webster and Breakers import Lamar Patterson couldn t get contested lay-ups to drop in the final few seconds to send the game into overtime, where the home side closed out victory.
Patterson made a three-pointer with 17 seconds in overtime to give his side late hope, but missed his next attempt on the buzzer that would have forced double-overtime.
Kelly Barnes/Getty Images
Finn Delany and Tai Webster enjoy a moment en route to the Breakers overtime defeat to the 36ers in Adelaide.
The New Zealand Breakers wasted a brilliant display from returning Tall Blacks star Tai Webster to cough up a sloppy 94-91 overtime defeat at the Adelaide 36ers in their NBL season opener on Friday night. Webster, making his first appearance for the Kiwi club since he left eight years ago as a teenage development prospect, carried an undermanned and off-key Breakers outfit to within touching distance of what would have been an outstanding first-up victory in Adelaide.
Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images
Breakers centre Rob Loe will join his team-mates in Melbourne several weeks ahead of schedule to prepare for NBL 2021.
Mother Nature keeps to no-one’s schedule and in the case of the arrival of Breakers big man Rob Loe’s first baby, the timeline has been reset firmly in the team’s favour. Loe’s wife, Kelly, had their first baby boy in Auckland several weeks ahead of schedule, which means the experienced centre will be able to join his Breakers team-mates in Melbourne in plenty of time to play a full part in the team s NBL pre-season campaign.