Mennenga was moving into the game nicely at this point, with 15 second-quarter points to go with five rebounds and those three first-quarter assists.
The Breakers then lost offensive rhythm in the second half as Cairns found theirs. Jaylin Galloway was a significant presence on his return from injury; the forward ended with 18 points on three of five shooting from deep.
Cairns extended in the final quarter and looked to have the game under control inside the final two minutes, but two missed Jaylen Brown free throws, a quick Jackson-Cartwright basket and a Carlin Davison steal led to a mad scramble in the Cairns paint.
Davison was close with a contested lay-up and Mojave King looked to be fouled in gaining the rebound, but there was no whistle and a final off-balance attempt from the Breakers came up short on the buzzer.
The Breakers are now 4-5 having just completed five straight away games and seven in total through their opening nine games. They will be ruing going 12/23 from the foul line on a night when they shot an impressive 12/25 from the outside.
Mennenga finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and four assists with Charles Bediako perhaps having his biggest impact of the season with 15 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks.
Jackson-Cartwright had 14 points, nine assists and six rebounds on return with Carlin Davison contributing eight points, eight rebounds and six assists, and Reuben Te Rangi three points, two rebounds and two steals in NBL game 400.
Sebastian Gleim had control of the team in Cairns in the absence of Gordie Herbert and was feeling this was a game that could have been won.
“We are unhappy with the loss, we will look at the film, right now it is pretty emotional, right now all the players are disappointed with the loss. I thought we had a great effort and had a chance to win here against a talented team but just came up short on the big players.
“In the first half we were disciplined in our positioning and moved the ball well. We had good shot selection and had our defence set but in the second half we gave up too many open threes against a very good shooting team.”
Charles Bediako spoke of the anticipation now in a home game on Friday night at Spark Arena, just the third in the Breakers season so far.
“We will learn from this game, and we are excited for the next game at home, we are going to take this one game at a time, but we can’t wait to get home on Friday night and play in front of our home fans for sure.”
