The Wellington Saints remained unbeaten at home in the National Basketball League after blowing the Nelson Giants away 86-75 in last night's first semifinal.
Supported by 21 points from point guard Luke Martin, the regular season champions advanced to the best-of-three finals series next week.
Martin, Ernest Scott,Nick Horvath, Arthur Trousdell and Brendon Polyblank scored in double figures as they edged away from the gutsy defending champs in the final period to make it 10 wins at home.
A 14-2 run, punctuated by back-to-back triples from American forward Scott, who finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and six steals, midway through the fourth quarter gave the Saints a 77-63 lead with 1min 30sec remaining.
Martin, who started ahead of Tall Black Lindsay Tait at point guard, shot 8-of-13 from the field and added four assists, while Horvath posted 16 points and 12 rebounds, with Trousdell scoring a cameo 11 points along with Brendon Polyblank.
The Saints move on to the finals series, starting next Tuesday, against either the Waikato Pistons or Youthtown Auckland Stars, who meet in the second semifinal in Te Awamutu tonight.
Giants American centre Michael Harrison scored an equal game-high 21 points, pulling down 11 boards and dropping five assists, and lynchpin Phill Jones had 17 points but was restricted by Polyblank's defence. Forward Jamil Terrell posted 14 points and 13 boards.
Wellington were able to get out to a six-point lead midway through the third period but an emphatic Harrison follow-up dunk with 2min 02sec remaining levelled the scores at 54-54.
But Tait scored the next five points to send the Saints into the final period with a five-point buffer.
With Terrell and Harrison leading the way, Nelson dominated Wellington - the league's best rebounding team - on the boards 27-12, including 14 offensive boards.
The Saints shot almost 60 per cent from the floor in the first half to Nelson's 41 per cent.
