ON TARGET: Choppers' Hayden Allen goes for the layup above fallen Toa player Hyrum Hippolite. PHOTOS/BEVAN CONLEY
THE Auckland Choppers made it three straight Men's Premier titles at the 2015 HoopNation tournament after winning a rugged final over the Toa Maori team 54-46 inside Springvale Stadium yesterday afternoon.
Choppers progressed to the championship match of the moneyed tournament by beating Taranaki's Junior Airs 65-57 in the morning semifinals, while Toa accounted for Blitz Black 52-39.
In a game with more fouls than a chicken coop, Choppers got swiftly into their work at the end of three draining days of play, with Hayden Allen and Lindsay Tait sinking the long ball and layup respectively.
Toa's Hyrum Hippolite and Brook Ruscoe remained energetic and hunted for the steals, while Choppers' legendary giant Casey Frank began what would be a running debate with the officials about where his elbows would end up if he was leaping above taller opponents.
Choppers led 15-12 at quartertime, which they would close to a point before Choppers' Aaron Nowell injected himself with good rebounds, drawing the foul as he did so.
Both men in the No11 singlet - Choppers' Nat Connell and Toa's Jordan Ngatai - also earned the umpires' attention, and it took some nice rebound goals from Ross Taurima and Hippolite for Toa to finish the half with a flourish but trailing 25-20.
The stop-start nature of the game continued with a few players, Nowell especially, hitting the hard wood from charges or charging.
Frank showed his guile as he would calmly work under the hoop and then tip the ball up as Choppers expanded their advantage to 33-26, although Ngatai nailed a good three-pointer after a nice Toa passing exchange to keep hope alive at 39-32 entering the final quarter.
Both teams looked to up the tempo as the match finally came alive, with the ball traveling end-to-end before Tait set up the waiting Frank for a one-handed dunk.
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Image 1 of 22: HoopNation basketball competition at Springvale Stadium 2015.
Toa could not break down the lead by any more than six points, with Tait and Frank showing their experience, the former running down the shot clock before sweeping past his marker and setting Duane Bailey up for the bucket, and the latter laying up in traffic.
The final three minutes was a little repetitious as Toa kept hunting for the three-pointer, with Ngatai nailing one good shot, but then giving up free throws as they tried to force the turnovers.
While the final seemed a little lacklustre, there had still been play of the highest quality and intensity throughout the tournament, which was best exhibited in the Men's A final between two proud rivals - OBC of Palmerston North and All Stars from Wellington.
Both teams came into the final undefeated in pool play and comfortable winners in their semifinals over Five Star (OBC 52-32) and Trenthem (All Stars 80-29).
There was also the historic matter of the various incarnations of these two teams having shared the previous four Men's A titles between them, 2-2.
In the end, after the lead swapped hands or was tied multiple times, All Stars emerged with the victory 51-46, with both sides missing their share of buckets in the final three minutes under tough defensive pressure.
While guys were getting knocked over in the premier final, here a number hit the hard wood because they were showing full commitment to recover loose ball. A three-pointer on the buzzer of quartertime kept the sides deadlocked 13-13.
OBC had added a couple of Kaia players, notably Shaka Reddell, to their roster, and they moved to a key 18-13 advantage through good work by Nick Baker and Shae Brown.
But All Stars had the skills as well, with Cory Vessy scoring off a nice no-look pass, while Jacob Te Kotiri Walsh responded to OBC's Stacey Lambert's three pointer with his own in kind. Walsh kept them coming after a smart interchange with Taane Samuel as All Stars briefly took a 24-23 advantage, before OBC struck back to get the initiative at halftime 28-24.
The scores were then tied 31-all with All Stars' Jordan Hunt charging, while Lambert, the great NBL veteran, pulled out three pointers under pressure.
All Stars' Kiki Kiriau pulled up for a shot and then slipped through for a layup as his team now led at three-quarter time 38-37.
Again the scores were levelled 41-all, but Walsh would make OBC pay for some costly misses as he extended the advantage to 46-41, which soon became a one-point ball game after Callum Brock hit three for the Manawatu team.
It seemed every call and free throw was up for debate as the clock wound down, Lambert crashing to the canvas more than once as he tried to keep his team in the game.
Both teams now struggled to put the match away, but Walsh finally delivered to take his team back out to a five point buffer with 36 seconds left.
OBC called a time out with 15s to go as they tried to sort out how they would land back-to-back three pointers, but two misses saw them hand their defending champions crown to the Wellingtonians.