Basketball: Double success shoots Stars into NBL lead

Auckland Stars shot to the National Basketball League lead with a double win from their southern trip over the weekend.

They beat Canterbury 106-95 in Christchurch on Saturday after Friday's 76-67 victory over Otago in Dunedin.

In Saturday's game Casey Frank led the way with 29 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists followed by Aaron Olson's 24 points and Lindsay Tait's 20. Michael Gardener topscored for the Rams with 32.

The Rams had the upper hand in the first and last quarters when they scored 38-31 and 25-20 respectively.

But the Stars were too good in the middle stages, turning the game in the second quarter 28-11 before pressing home 27-21 in the third and then holding on.

In New Plymouth on Saturday the Taranaki Mountain Airs blew away the Wellington Saints in the last two minutes to remain in the playoff race.

Taranaki won 87-77 after only one point separated the two teams with less than four minutes remaining.

Ahead 72-71, Taranaki's playoff hopes were hanging by a thread, before a three-point play by Link Abrams. The big forward was fouled as he went up for a basket and, with the bonus free throw, gave Taranaki breathing space at 75-71.

With less than a minute on the clock, Abrams made sure of the win.

He drove in for the shot, with the ball spinning around the hoop before dropping to give his side a seven-point buffer to the relief of the home crowd.

It was the Saints' third loss in as many matches last week after earlier going down to Nelson and Waikato.

"That was a roller coaster ride," Taranaki coach Warren Osborne said.

"We got away to a very slow start. To tie it up at halftime was a surprise to me after the Saints led by 10 at one stage in the second quarter."

The Saints made a blistering start to lead 7-0, with the home side sluggish in comparison. But by the end of the first quarter, Taranaki had clawed back to 17-14 and by halftime had tied the game up 38-38.

Tall Black Tony Rampton came out firing after halftime with three baskets to give Taranaki a 44-38 lead and midway through the third quarter Taranaki led by 14 points at 56-42.

But with Rampton receiving attention after injuring his ankle, the Saints came marching back to trim the margin to two points at 60-58 in Taranaki's favour.

Every time Taranaki got a break, Saints would respond, before Abrams' telling points late in the game. Abrams finished with a game-high 23 points and captain Willie Banks scored 19 points, including four three-pointers. Wellington's leading scorer was Ben Knight with 13.

The Saints lost 96-77 to Waikato on Friday and Hawkes Bay beat North Harbour 81-62.

Harbour bounced back on Saturday to beat the Manawatu Jets 104-74 and maintain their playoff aspirations.

They succeeded with 12 from 24 shots from beyond the arc where Prem Krishna (29 points in all) and Brent Charleton (23) shot 10 and 19 points respectively.

- NZPA