Basketball: Hawks dumped out of NBL playoffs amid controversy, Rams win in overtime

Everard Bartlett, Hawks coach, would have been less than impressed with the final moments. Photo / Andy Skinner - Photosport

The Taylor Hawke’s Bay Hawks’ belated late run for 2023 Sal’s national men’s basketball league honours came to an end with a controversial overtime preliminary semi-final loss to the more-favoured Canterbury Rams in Auckland tonight.

The Rams won 103-95 in overtime, but could have been out right on the buzzer of regular time when it was 86-86.

A shot bobbled on the rim and Canterbury player Walter Brown forward poked through the hoop and deflected the ball from what could have been the shot to send the Hawks into a Saturday-night semi-final against defending champions the Otago Nuggets.

Mysteriously, the umpires decided against a review and the game went to its extra five minutes, star player Jordan Hunt suggesting soon after it was over, that maybe the Hawks had expended just a little too much energy on challenging the outcome.

He couldn’t understand why the moment had not been reviewed - “It is what it is,” he said – and it became the sporting equivalent of a ram-raid as Canterbury capitalised on the jilt and outplayed the Hawks 17-9 in the extra period.

Scraping into the top six for the playoffs with a crucial last three wins at home - the Hawks looked out for the count when the Rams led 76-59 at the end of the third quarter.

It became the Hawks that were doing the counting, going on a 24-2 burner to lead 83-78 when Hyrum Harris made a three-point jump-shot with 2min 59sec remaining on the clock.

Corey Webster replied with a similar effort for the Rams with 23.2sec to go setting up the drama that tended to ebb into melodrama as the clock ticked well into the extra time.

The game was poised evenly at 18-18 at the end of the first quarter but the Rams had edged out by five to lead 47-40 at the half, and added another 10 to increase the margin to 17 points hitting the run home.

The Hawks, with successive steals and blocks jolting the Rams offense, won the fourth quarter 27-10, but it was not enough, and as the overtime ticked away they were forced into a succession of unsuccessful attempts at the triple to try to face the game, highlighted by Derone Raukawa’s 12 three-points attempts, which ultimately garnered just three successes.

Troy Baxter Jnr nailed 29pts for the Rams and Tevin Brown scored, 21, while Jordan Ngatai top-scored for the Hawks with 20pts, including four triples, backing up from his season-high of 47pts against the Manawatu Jets in Napier last weekend.

Harris finished with 16 and Jordan Hunt, who operated like a battleship in the fourth quarter, scored 15.

It was the third time in 2023 that the Hawks had been vanquished in overtime, the first in triple-overtime when beaten 110-103 by the Rams on the home court at Pettigrew Green Arena, Taradale, in April and when beaten 100-99 by the Franklin Bulls at the PGA last month.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.