BOARD MEETING: Hawks guard Willie Stinnett (centre) challenges Sharks US import Jordair Jett for a rebound as Luke Aston waits for the spill in Napier. PHOTO/Warren Buckland
MAN UP is the word. Terse, perhaps, but there's nothing convoluted about that message from Hawks coach Kirstin Daly-Taylor to her tormented men.
"We're not physical enough. We're not playing D with enough pride and with enough heart and oomph," said an animated Daly-Taylor after the Indigo-sponsored Hawke's Bay franchise basketball team conceded 33 shots inside the paint.
Consequently the Hawks remain in the hunt for their maiden victory in the National Basketball League (NBL) this season after losing their third home match, 100-76, to SIT Zerofees Southland Sharks in Napier on Thursday night.
"Step up and do something. Step out and protect your team on our home gym. Protect the key [driving and shooting lanes]."
The Aidan Daly and Chris Porter co-skippered Hawks stuck to Daly-Taylor's blueprint for the most part of first half of the game, trailing 43-40 at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale, but lost the plot soon after returning from the locker rooms.
"In the second half we came out flat. The defence was nothing like what we discussed and offensively we kept going out of offence," she said before the Hawks host the Canterbury Rams at the PG Arena in a 1pm tip off on Monday.
"I don't think we made more than four passes and then we took a quick shot which resulted in Southland doing lay ups."
It left Daly-Taylor confused because that certainly is not her template for the team's NBL campaign this season.
It left her flabbergasted that the Judd Flavell-coached Sharks scored 57 points in the second half to leave the Hawks desperately feeling they can't buy a win right now.
"We have to keep the scores low for us to win. Nick Kay just killed us with 32 points with too many uncontested shots," she said after the Sharks' Australian import guard claimed the game-high bragging rights while their other import, American guard Jordair Jett, also rubbed it in with 24 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Derone Raukawa (14 points), Everard Bartlett (9), Anamata Haku (8) and Alex Pledger (8pts, 16 rebounds) also came to the party for the visitors.
For the Hawks, Porter claimed the side's first double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds but you get the impression the US import forward would cash that in at a heartbeat for a victory.
Guard Alonzo Burton scored 13 points and collected five off the glass as well as made four assists while US import Kareem Johnson scored 10.
Daly-Taylor is adamant the Hawks need to front up.
"I just think we've got to understand we're wearing the Hawks singlet and we play D so I'm very disappointed with the second half," she said as the hosts broke from tradition to slip on new light grey strips in place of black ones at home.
She emphasised it wasn't about singling out her big men in Porter, Johnson and Bay-born Arthur Trousdell.
"It's a team thing. We had Jordair Jett flying down the middle. Derone Raukawa doing the same and putting up jump shots and Everard Bartlett down the other end putting up shots uncontested.
"No one stepped over - here take it."
While there were "moments of Hawks" she couldn't get past a "very disappointing" second half.
It has left Daly-Taylor scratching her head trying to figure out what she had said or done in her halftime pep talk to prompt her men into such spontaneous and erratic behaviour.
"Changing room was about stepping up," she said.
"We were about going out to take it to another level to win the game because it [the score] was too close to them so they were going to lift to another level of pace and tenacity of D so we had to meet them at halfway.
"We didn't step up. We just kind of ran through the motions. I thought our shot selections were still part of our offence so we still need to stay in our systems so we can rebound to make sure they don't just pick up and go."
The pleasing aspect for her was the ability of the Hawks to penetrate the hole to demand more free throws (23/18) than the Sharks.
She echoed the sentiments of Burton that the ball needed to be moved around a bit more, something bench guards William Stinnett and Mataeus Marsh did with aplomb.
Daly and Burton's lack of rapport in the third quarter, which resulted in the frustrated captain picking a foul for dissent against referee Yalla Edwards, epitomised the capitulation.
Daly-Taylor felt the Hawks did not seem to comprehend the significance of what a good shot did for confidence collectively.
"For them [Sharks] to have so many lay ups and easy baskets - what was it? 66 points in the paint - that's just terrible."
She said the Rams on Monday would bring a different challenge but one they should be familiar with.
"They are Nelson like in the way they execute because they don't have any individual stars but they are coached well so they execute well, they play as a team and they play the D," she said of the Mark Dickel-coached Canterbury outfit.
Anything shy of "40 flaming minutes" of A game will mean groundhog day for the Hawks against the Rams who have chalked up two wins, including last night's 98-94 result against defending champions Sharks in Christchurch.
"My boys have to understand mental discipline to work the game plan and stay in it for 40 minutes," she said.
She didn't think the starting five should see off the dying minutes to instil that fortitude because she feels they have the depth to help. She is still in the throes of nutting out her top nine players.
Hamstrung forward Darryl Jones will again sit out the next game and possibly week.
"He is our toughest defender. What DJ does for us is communicate from the back and kind of instinctively directs what's going to happen so we're going to miss him but somebody needs to step up," she said, adding that veteran guard Paora Winitana did do that in his season opener but everyone had to man up.
She thanked the gold-coin Hawks faithful at the 50 per cent-full arena for assuming the mantle of "sixth man".