What was disconcerting was Jets big dog Nick Horvath, right knee heavily strapped, hobbling his way to eight rebounds, one more than Hawks' Nigerian import, Suleiman Braimoh.
On the team scale, the Jets bullied the hosts relentlessly on the board, 43-29.
"Nick is the anchor. He's playing on one knee right now so he's huge," said Trueman, who attributed his double-double 20 points and 11 rebounds to Horvath boxing out players.
"I kind of think he was getting double-doubles when I was boxing my men so this year he'll box his men out and I'll go after the balls."
What mattered most to the Jets, he said was the victory.
"I think it was about us tonight because we put ourselves in a pretty bad position in the league ... so finally we were able to put the ball in the hole.
"We usually do well here in Hawke's Bay ... but it was a team effort with the guys shooting the ball and we rebounded," Trueman said.
But it was the fox terriers, Brook Ruscoe (game-21 high points and six assists) and Derone Raukawa (15 points, seven rebounds), who were constantly nipping at the Hawks' heels.
"Derone is the young guy who has come in and played like he was in the backyard.
"Brook is formidable in this league so he's playing like we want him to all year," the captain said.
Ruscoe and Raukawa worked clinically, dissecting the Hawks' defence on the inside after feeding off the quick reflexes of import point guard Brandon Jenkins, who scored 12 points, made six assists and collected five rebounds.
Jets bench player Jordan Ngatai added 20 points.
The writing was on the wall as early as halftime for the Hawks, who were reduced to playing catch-up hoop amid passages of desperation in the second spell.
Nothing short of a Houdini act would have saved them and, as it turned out, they couldn't free themselves of the shackles as the Jets watched them squeal.
It was a painful first quarter with the Hawks out of sorts and out of love with the rim, trailing 13-4 at the five-minute mark.
A three-attempt basket from bench player Morgan Natanahira perhaps best epitomised the tooth-extracting exercise during that spell.
Marco Alexander's three-pointer brought some joy but co-skipper Jarrod Kenny's outburst at referee Miguel Gallardo drew a technical foul as the Hawks trailed 21-11 with two minutes to go. The Hawks had the last say but the spell belonged to the visitors, 27-15.
The homeboys returned to put up some fight but travelling violations, mediocre shooting, soft turnovers, air shots and silly fouls punctuated the second quarter.
The Jets headed for the locker room with their chests puffed up and a spring in their steps, leading 56-35 (29-20) at halftime.
In the third quarter, the Hawks piled on a quick-fire seven points within 90 seconds before the Jets got on the board.
Braimoh dunked one to close the gap to 68-48 but shortly after the smattering of fans' cheers turned to boos when Gallardo penalised bench player Aanamata Haku as a Jets player tripped over his leg during a fast break.
The Hawks won that spell, just, 22-21, to trail 77-57 at the buzzer.
The final fling gave the crowd something to cheer about, co-skipper Paora Winitana (twice) and Alonzo Burton dropping baskets from downtown.
However, Raukawa replied to deathly silence to maintain Jets' 89-77 lead with a shade less than five minutes left.
It was the visitors' turn to display jangled nerves as they stumbled, fumbled and fell foul of the shot clock.
Nevertheless, the Jets held their composure with co-coaches Darren Larson and assistant Miles Pearce managing court proceedings with crucial timeouts.
"We didn't give them too much of a run. We gave them twos instead of threes and tried to keep them away from the free-throw line," Trueman said, looking forward to the rematch in Palmerston North.
The Hawks won the last quarter, 33-14, but it was way too little, too late.
