Slam dunk: Teams place weight on imports

By PETER JESSUP

The Harbour Heat have signed Wollongong Hawks centre Axel Dench for the domestic league starting in two weeks, and other teams continue to chase Australian imports for what will be a strengthened competition.

Dench, 28, will have to complete his commitments to the Hawks in playoffs first, so he will miss an unspecified number of games but will add big impact when he does arrive.

Dench played for Gonzaga University in the US and represented Australia at the 2001 Goodwill Games. He was NBL rookie of the year in 2001.

Harbour continue to chase an American forward as well.

The Heat have attracted national age-group representative Dan Ryan from Otago and last season's Nelson Giants captain Judd Flavell.

Wellington are looking nervously at the playoff commitment of their import Ben Knight, who has a pre-Olympic camp with the Boomers.

Hawks guard Adam Caporn, 21, will also join the Saints once the Aussie league is decided. Saints coach Mike McHugh said Knight would miss 10 games and they would reconsider another import if the team fell in a hole early in the season.

Auckland will stick with Casey Frank as an import and will not exercise the option all teams have of also taking on an Australian. Their pre-season has been disrupted, having four players with the Breakers who were undergoing the franchise's review process this week.

Taranaki will play top-scorer Link Abrams as a local this season after his citizenship papers came through.

The Nelson Giants and Palmerston Jets are also keeping their options open to take on an Aussie.

Only Otago have stated they won't chase more than one import - yet to be confirmed - because the Nuggets are still without a naming rights sponsor and the money to pay wages.

Otago and Taranaki were the only two teams to go through last weekend's pre-season tournament in Palmerston North unbeaten.

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Breakers import Mike Chappell cleaned up the new franchise's two on-court awards at its first prizegiving in Auckland last night.

Chappell averaged 22 points and four rebounds after coming in after their slow start to play 21 of the 33 round play games.

The 26-year-old swingman, contracted for two more seasons, was voted Most Valuable Player by management and Player's Player by his peers.

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Tall Fern Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe scored 17 points for BBV Leipzig in an 86-63 win over playoff-bound BG74 Gottingen. She also delivered five assists and four rebounds. Leipzig finished their season with a 7-14 record, missing the playoffs by one spot.

Fellow national squad member Gina Farmer's MAV-Coop Szolnok club have progressed to the Europe Cup semifinals, defeating Spezia Basket of Italy 61-50 last Friday while Farmer was in New Zealand attending sister Sally's wedding.

Aucklander Miah Shelford took 11 rebounds for the University of Southeast Missouri when they lost their final regular season game 75-78 to University of Tennessee-Martin in overtime. She scored five points in her 24 minutes on court. The team head into the Ohio Valley Conference tournament as fourth seeds with a 10-6 record in conference play.

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Canterbury forward Luke Ruscoe shot three of four 3-point attempts and three of five inside the arc to help Brown University to a 100-83 victory over Harvard. The bears took their Ivy League record to 9-3, good enough for second.

Auckland's Glyn Turner played 12 minutes for three points, six rebounds and a steal as the Liberty University Flames beat Radford University 50-49. Liberty enter the Big South Conference tournament as top seeds after a 12-4 conference record.