Basketball: Auckland at last win at home

By MURRAY McKINNON

Tab Baldwin had that good feeling after his Auckland team finally secured a home-court victory in the national league, beating Canterbury 99-79.

The fact that Baldwin also equalled former Tall Black coach Keith Mair's record of 141 wins in the league, was "a sidebar to the win."

"It is the best we have played all year. It was a pressure game and we rose to it, and I feel pretty good about it," Baldwin said.

Auckland were restricted to shooting from the outside in the first quarter, Aaron Olson and Mason Le Pou contributing with three-point bombs, to lead 26-24.

Towards the end of the second quarter Auckland went on a scoring spree, Paul Henare and Ben Pepper grabbing turnovers which Pepper and Dillion Boucher converted into 10 unanswered points, giving them a 51-38 halftime lead.

Rams centre John Whorton battled well under a heavy Auckland defence in the third quarter and, combined with forward Andrew Gardiner, led their scoring.

But Auckland were on a roll and Boucher, Pepper and Olson dominated the boards for Auckland in the final quarter, leaving Whorton and Luke Roscoe the only lifelines for Canterbury.

Henare signed off Auckland's effort with two three-pointers in the final seconds.

Scoring was evenly spread among the Auckland players. Pepper had 19 and Boucher and Olson both scored 17.

Whorton was out on his own for the Rams with 29.

Baldwin said they were uncompromising about the situation they were in.

"It was our chance to tag a loss on them [Canterbury] and control our destiny from here."

Waikato maintained their unbeaten record this season in beating Nelson 80-72 after leading 47-40 at the break.

Nelson had briefly hit the front 56-53 after Phill Jones led a charge with 11 points in the third quarter.

Palmerston North kept their faint hopes of a playoff position alive with a home-court win over Hawkes Bay 82-78.

Canterbury's woes continued on the North Shore yesterday with their road trip north proving costly as they were beaten by the Harbour Kings 81-91.

The damage came in the first quarter. Brendon Cathie-Pongia, lethal from the three-point area, gave the Kings a 28-15 lead.

For the rest of the game Canterbury were unable to bridge the gap, despite having the better of the next two quarters.

Cathie-Pongia scored 27 points and Brad Riley 20. Whorton picked up 17 for Canterbury.

Kings coach Tracy Carpenter described it as a confidence-building win.

"All we can do is to finish the season strongly," Carpenter said.

Nelson came back yesterday to defeat Wellington 96-86.

Waikato lead the standings with 11 victories. The Nelson Giants and the Saints share second spot with eight wins each.