Basketball: Breeze will blow storm at Wildcats

Defending champions Canterbury Wildcats and upstarts Harbour Breeze loom as the teams to beat when the women's national league tips off this weekend.

The Wildcats have retained most of the roster that defeated Nelson in last year's final, including veteran MVP Sonja Akkerman and American guard Alissa Murphy.

A notable loss is retired Tall Fern Sally Farmer, but coach Phil Burns has added a second import, Irish forward Sue Moran, who has played for the New York Liberty in the WNBA.

Harbour were the surprise of last year's league, coached by Mata Cameron and built around members of her Junior Tall Ferns squad. Many of them are now eyeing American university scholarships, but return for another crack at the WNBL.

Led by American forward Erin Beuscher, the Breeze challenged hard for the regular season title.

But the Junior Tall Ferns were away at the Oceania Youth Tournament on finals weekend and Harbour were not a factor in the playoffs.

This year they have added two imports forwards, Lesley Dubois and Shannamar Dewey, as well as Tall Fern Jodi Cameron and promising junior Jess McCormack.

Nelson dropped out of the league and have been replaced by Waitakere, winners of last year's second-division title.

Waikato, Wellington and Otago complete the six-team field with finals weekend scheduled for June 24-25 in Dunedin.

Sent packing

The Nelson Giants replaced one of their imports before the start of the PRIMO National Basketball League. Now American Adam Spanich has been sent packing as well.

Coach Nenad Vucinic has enlisted American guard Tyrone Barley to replace Spanich, who was a useful long-range shooter (14 points, 42.9 per cent 3pt) but offered little else to a team missing Tall Black Phill Jones this season.

Barley has an impressive pedigree, playing at St Josephs University behind a pair of guards who are now rookies in the NBA, Jameer Nelson (Orlando Magic) and Delonte West (Boston Celtics). He was named in the Atlantic 10 All-Defensive Team and voted the conference's Sixth Man of the Year for a team that compiled a 29-game winning streak last year.

After leaving school, Barley attended the Orlando rookie camp and played for the Philadelphia 76ers summer league team.

He is also an outside threat, shooting 42 per cent 3pt in his final year at St Joes, and will give Vucinic the defensive presence he needs to steady the Giants (3-3), who lost at home to the Taranaki Mountain Airs last week. Nelson host the Canterbury Rams tomorrow night.

Coming home

One phenomenon occurring since the Tall Blacks started achieving international success is the number of Kiwi players emerging from abroad to reclaim their heritage.

Tall Black and NZ Breaker Aaron Olson, born in Canada to a New Zealand mother, is probably the best example of a foreign-based player making the most of his chances, but two more Canadian-based Kiwis are about to join the Harbour Heat in the NBL.

Brent Charleton will join the Breakers on their China tour and then return to the Heat for the remainder of the season in the hope he can push for a national team spot. The 1.98m guard was named Player of the Year in Canada while scoring 24.4 points (43.1 per cent 3pt) for Simon Fraser University.

He scored 30 or more points in eight games during the past season and broke the school scoring record with 2687 points over his career.

Charleton will be joined by Tony Richter, a 1.98m forward who averaged nine points and seven rebounds at Winnipeg University.

Rock solid

Tall Black Pero Cameron celebrated his 2000th NBL rebound on Sunday during the Waikato Titans' road win over the Otago Nuggets.

In his 14th year in the league, milestones are piling up for Cameron, who blocked his 100th shot a couple of weeks ago and was due to play his 250th game against Taranaki Mountain Airs last night.

A glance at his career statistics shows why he is held in such high esteem, apart from his six league titles and many individual awards, 249 games, 13.5 points (56.6 per cent FG, 73.8 per cent FT, 37.7 per cent 3pt), 8 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.6 steals, 0.4 blocks. Rock solid.

Another veteran international centre, Ed Book, played his 200th game in Nelson's loss to the Mountain Airs, while Canterbury guard Nat Connell has now scored 1000 points.

Power ranking

Auckland Stars' forward Casey Frank won his second consecutive NBL Player of the Week award and moved to the top of the Player Power Rankings after helping his team to victories in round five.

Frank averaged 20 points (69.6 per cent FG, 71.4 per cent 3pt, 50 per cent FT), 9.5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 block and 1 steals in wins over Harbour Heat and Manawatu Jets. He provided the winning basket in the 82-81 result over the Heat.

The power rankings top 10 are Frank, Greg Lewis (Waikato Titans), Jacob Holmes (Nelson Giants), Ryan Prillman (Canterbury Rams), Derek Moore (Bay Hawks), David Cooper (Manawatu Jets), Russell Hinder (Otago Nuggets), Kantrail Horton (Waikato Titans), Mika Vukona (Nelson Giants) and Hayden Allen (Harbour Heat).