By Robert Lowe of NZPA

Auckland, Feb 15 NZPA - An unbroken six-match winning streak is a source of frustration and optimism as the New Zealand Breakers take stock after the premature end to their Australian National Basketball League campaign.

"Pretty gutted" was general manager Richard Clarke's assessment today of the mood in the camp after they fell just one victory shy of a playoff spot.

"We're sitting here and saying how hollow it feels," he said.

"We were playing great basketball and it's disappointing we're just short of where we needed to be. It's no-one else's fault but our own, but it's a strange feeling."

The Breakers did what they had to in their final match at the weekend by beating Cairns 84-79 in North Queensland, but Gold Coast's victory over Melbourne sealed their fate.

Having been tipped as title contenders at the start of the season, they were left to rue missed opportunities, particularly failing to close out matches after having held significant leads.

"If we want to take positives out of it, we learned from that and changed how we played," Clarke said.

"In the last six games, we were very, very good and we just have to build on that."

The Breakers, with a 15-13 record, ended just two wins short of top-of-the-table Perth and had players leading the statistics.

Shooting guard Kirk Penney, like last season, again finished as the competition's top scorer with 22.8 points per game.

Centre Rick Rickert had the best field goal percentage with 55.7 and most rebounds with 7.0 a game.

Point guard CJ Burton, who contributed 16.7 points a game, headed the steals category with a 1.5 average.

Penney and Bruton are on contract for next season, and are Paul Henare, Tom Pledger, Oscar Forman, Corey Webster and Alex Pledger.

Clarke said the club was finalising details to have Dylan Boucher stay on, and talks would be held with other players over the next two weeks as part of the review process.

The only player definitely not returning was Tony Ronaldson, who is retiring after 20 years in the ANBL.

American guard Kevin Braswell, brought in on a one-month replacement contract and whose arrival coincided with the Breakers' up-turn in fortunes, had indicated that he wanted to come back.

However, Clarke also said Braswell was the type of the player who would be in demand around the world and it was a case of talking to him about his plans.

Coach Andrej Lemanis, who has two more years on his contract, will stay at the helm, with Clarke saying the club "definitely" backed him.

"Andrej is tough on himself and, if you look at the last six games, you would say he's made adjustments too," he said.

"It's a good coach that can look at where things are going wrong and make those adjustments."

While the Breakers have missed on what would have been their third post-season in a row, Clarke said the way they finished off boded well for the future.

"If we had continued to make the same mistakes and struggled along at the bottom of the ladder, then we would be doing it tough," he said.

"We're gutted we didn't make the playoffs because we think we're the best team in the competition right now. However, we were that close that we know we've got a good team and we've got good support around it."