Basketball: Pipped in overtime as home horror continues for Hawks

US import Ira Lee in his first Hawke's Bay Hawks home game, a loss three weeks ago to the Nelson Giants. On Saturday Lee scored 32 points as the Hawks were beaten by the Franklin Bulls, their fifth loss in five home outings this year. Photo / Paul Taylor

The Hawke’s Bay Hawks’ home-court duck in 2023 went another round with a drama-plus, one-point overtime National Basketball League (NBL) loss to the Franklin Bulls at Taradale’s Pettigrew Green Arena (PGA) on Saturday night.

It was the Hawks’ fifth loss in five home games in 2023, but the fifth win in a row for the Bulls, avenging the outcome of the sides’ last meeting, an 84-79 Hawks win, also in overtime, in the season opener in Pukekohe at Easter.

On Saturday it was 100-99, after an 88-88 logjam at the end of regular time in a game which had seen the home side nosediving to a deficit of 22 points at one point in the third quarter.

The Hawks’ five home-court defeats are balanced to a degree by away wins over four of those who had won at the PGA, but with 13 games down and the next away to the Nelson Giants, the favour of having the last four at home starts to look a mixed blessing.

Reversals in the 10-team NBL are not unusual in 2023, highlighted by the slide from first to third of the champion Otago Nuggets, with a seven-match winning run first up followed by four losses in a row, including one at home to the Hawks, before regaining the mojo with a 16pts drubbing of Wellington Saints in the capital earlier on Saturday night.

The Taranaki Airs also, as regular-season table-toppers last year, are now sitting at the foot of this year’s table with just three wins from 11 games.

The Hawks looked headed for a heavy defeat as the margin at the PGA on Saturday grew, with the Bulls leading 26-16 at the end of the first quarter and by 54-38 at halftime.

Despite the deficit blowing out to over 20 points, the Hawks won both remaining quarters, albeit still 15 points shy at the end of the third when the Bulls led 77-62, going to the start of what should have been the last 10 minutes.

The Hawks burst into the last quarter with the first eight points, with Hyrum Harris, Jordan Ngatai and American import Ira Lee each contributing, and went from 70-82 down with six minutes and 45 seconds left to draw level at 86-86 with a minute and 31 seconds remaining, before hitting the lead with Ethan Rusbatch throwing down two from two from the free throw line.

The Hawks held the Bulls out as the game went scoreless for the next 1mn 16sec minute and 16 seconds, before Isaac Davidson’s two-point lay-up for the Bulls locked the score with just five seconds to go, and sent it into overtime.

The Hawks led 97-95 with just under two minutes of overtime remaining, and when Harris dropped two from two at the free throw line to put the Hawks ahead 99-98 with 4.7 seconds to go, would have nailed it had it not been for an almost petulant two-point lay-up to Dominique Kelman-Poto to snatch the win for the Bulls.

There were big performances for the Hawks, with Lee and Derone Raukawa notching two-thirds of the home side’s points between them, Lee with 32 without any longer-shot bids for three-points, and Raukawa with 31, including four from the outside.

Of the others, only Rusbatch hit double figures, but the visitors shared the points around, with Kelman-Poto top-scoring with 24, heading six Bulls who each got more than 10 points.

The night ended with the Hawks one place out of the top six, and likely to stay there for the rest of the weekend.

The Hawks’ remaining games are: June 16 v Nelson Giants (away), June 24 v Otago Nuggets (home), July 1 v Wellington Saints (home), July 9 v Auckland Tuatara (home), July 15 v Manawatū Jets (home).