Sluggish defence saw the Northland Suns fall to Basketball Auckland, 76-72, in the Super City Basketball Competition.
The Suns defeated the same team last week by 20 points, by shutting down their key point scorer Dylan Perfect-Tait but the Auckland side had cottoned on to the Suns strategy and adapted theirgame plan for Saturday's rematch at the Breakers Training Facility, in Auckland.
"They used everyone in the team this week, and Dylan had offence flowing through him and shots going straight to him," Suns guard Travis McIlroy said. Northland led at times throughout the four quarters and it was anyone's game at halftime with the score tied up at 36-all. However, in the latter half, a lack of communication on defence and having players out of position was detrimental to the Suns, allowing Auckland to land a few easy baskets.
It was a turnaround from last week when the Suns' one-on-one defence effectively closed down Auckland's offence.
"That put us on the back foot and we were playing catch up with not a lot of time left on the clock. Last week's game was very close even though the scoreline doesn't really reflect that. It was more intense this week as Auckland realised they had to be more aggressive."
The Suns were without their recent performer and key scorer Mitch Knock, who rolled his ankle at training, along with several players away with Whangarei Boys High competing at the Secondary School Nationals, and their efforts were missed on court. However, the ever-consistent power forward Justin Friedrich had another strong performance, top scoring with 24 points, while McIlroy shot 20.
Atama and Arahi O'Donnell were influential throughout the game as was Jason Edwards, who switched his manager role to play for the side when he was needed, boosting the Suns defence.
Saturday's game was the pool playoff and the loss left them in third spot, in their pool.
It was also the second to last game for the Suns in the competition, but they have some future fixtures planned, including two home games at Kensington Stadium.
