Basketball: Taranaki take away mixed bag

Harbour Heat’s Judd Flavell, left, towers over Taranaki’s Link Abrams during the Heat’s 99-67 win on Saturday. Picture / Fotopress

Taranaki are the third National Basketball League team to leave Auckland with a one-from-two record after using turnover ball to beat the Stars, then gifting too many turnovers themselves as they slumped to North Harbour.

The weekend's results do not substantially alter the table and with five rounds to go, the Auckland Stars and Waikato, who sat out the weekend, lead with nine wins from 14 games.

The Harbour Heat are the team few expected to be in the playoff four but they continue to be staunch on defence and kept the taller Taranaki side to 67 points. They had lost 80-64 to the Airs in New Plymouth last Sunday, so to reverse the result for a 99-67 victory shows they are intending to push on in the remaining rounds.

Breakers prospect Brent Charleton scored 28 and import Matt Lottich 29 as the Heat shot with 51 per cent accuracy at the North Shore Events Centre on Saturday night.

The Airs did not execute as well, Tony Rampton scoring 15 and Brad Davidson and Link Abrams both restricted to 14, their delivery rate just 37 per cent. The Airs also conceded 24 turnovers to 12.

It was the reverse of the Friday night game at the Trusts Stadium where the Stars gave 21 turnovers to the Airs' nine as the visitors won 90-82.

Davidson shot 26, including five of eight three-pointers. Two of those came late in the last quarter to effectively end any chance the Stars had of a late comeback.

Abrams scored 21, Willie Banks 18 and Rampton 16 as the Taranaki side scored from inside and out. They delivered a 51 per cent accuracy rate with 32 successful shots from 63 attempts while Auckland put up 78 shots but sunk just 32, at 41 per cent accuracy.

Breaker Aaron Olson had a very off-night, shooting one from 12.

The Nelson Giants are pushing into form at the right part of the season with an 87-74 win over Manawatu, who appear to be falling off. Captain Ed Book led the way with 27 and import Tyrone Barley shot 23. David Cooper got 21 for the Jets, who were effectively out of it after they went to the break 41-26 down.

Hawkes Bay stay in touch with the top sides after they scored one win in the South Island with a 89-62 defeat of Otago in Dunedin on Saturday and a 98-71 loss against Canterbury in Christchurch yesterday.

Paora Winitana was top-scorer in Dunedin with 28 while Australian NBL players A.J. Majstrovich and Dusty Rychart each contributed 14.

Just nine days ago, the Rams were struggling to get their heads around a stunning defeat at the hands of the previously winless Otago Nuggets.

Their 2005 campaign, which had started promisingly with a 5-1 run, was teetering at 7-6.

"All sorts of things happened," said Rams coach Pete McAllister. "Players just left the stadium - they were almost embarrassed or ashamed. It was the worst loss we had suffered in a long time."

If the Hawks imagined Canterbury were ready to take themselves out of playoff contention, they paid the price, falling to a ruthless Rams outfit this weekend.

The heat goes on the two Auckland sides in next weekend's round as the Stars travel to Dunedin on Friday and Christchurch on Saturday and the Heat go to Hawkes Bay on Friday then Palmerston North.

Wellington play Nelson on Wednesday, the Waikato Titans on Friday and Taranaki on Saturday. All the big-city teams need two wins to get on a finals roll and the Saints really need three.