Basketball New Zealand

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New Saints import Ernest Scott (left) with fellow American Kevin Owens (Photosport)

The import carousel made two more rotations around the Dominion Finance NBL in round six.

The Century City Wellington Saints pulled the trigger late last week, bringing in American Ernest Scott for compatriot Marquis Webb, while the Cartridge World Otago Nuggets have also traded Americans, swapping centre Antoine Tisby for swingman Jay Anderson.

Scott, a 2.00m forward, arrived in Wellington on Wednesday night, received his lost luggage early Friday afternoon, got his clearance to play late that afternoon, and went on the earn Player of the Week honours with 27 points, 11 rebounds, four steals, three blocks and an assist in his first NBL game, a 105-100 overtime win against the Appliance Shed Harbour Heat.

Scott is the fourth import for the Saints this season, using centre Nick Horvath and Webb to start the season, then bringing in Kevin Owens to replace Horvath – who is on a planned month-long break after getting married two weeks ago – before the Scott-for-Webb move.

The 25-year-old played for Saints coach Doug Marty in Luxembourg in 2001 and has also played professionally in Switzerland, Germany and the United States, where he was a WBA all-league first-team selection in 2005 and played in the NBA Development League until being waived by the Idaho Stampede on March 28.

“Marquis did a good job but it was a question of positional needs at this time in relation to our opposition,” Marty told the Dominion Post.

”There’s a lot of big rebounding teams in the league and it has been a weakness of ours this season.”

Webb averaged 17.4 points and 3.7 rebounds in seven games for the Saints.

Tisby, a 2.03m centre, landed in Dunedin on Thursday but did not receive his clearance until Monday afternoon, so missed the Nuggets 76-69 win over the Manawatu Jets in Timaru.

Anderson, a 2.05m swingman, recorded a double-double in his final game with 20 points and 11 rebounds, lifting his averages to 18.4 points and 8.1 rebounds in seven games.

The 24-year-old played under Nuggets coach Don Sims and with team-mate Lemar Gayle at the Seattle Mountaineers in the IBL last year and was a team-mate of former NZ Breaker Carlos Powell at the University of South Carolina in 2004-05, winning back-to-back NIT titles with the Gamecocks.

He most recently played for Al Ahli in Saudi Arabia and before that in Chile, where he averaged 29.1 points and 15.7 rebounds per game.

“Jay’s play and character have been exemplary, however the need for a post presence is going to be the difference this season,” Nuggets general manager Warrick Diack said.

“It was a difficult decision for us to make and believe me if we could we would keep Jay in the squad. It would be a no-brainer.”

Tisby will be the fourth import for Otago in 2008, after the Southern franchise acquired Gayle, averaging 25 points a game since arriving, for Rashaan Smith last month.

The Saints will also welcome Horvath back in the coming weeks, after his honeymoon break, as a non-restricted player after the American-born centre received his New Zealand citizenship last week. Horvath married his New Zealand fiancé Sheree Phillips on March 28.

The move will give Saints three import-quality players, with Horvath returning to join Owens and Scott, while former Tall Black Brendon Polyblank could yet play a part in the NBL for Wellington, depending on when his BBC Monthey team is eliminated from the Swiss Ligue Nationale de Basket playoffs.

In other changes around the League, the Jets franchise will now be known as the Property Brokers Manawatu Jets after a forced mid-season naming rights sponsor change.

The team’s former sponsor, OzJet Airlines, was bought out by Our Airline in late March, and pulled out of plans for international flights from Palmerston North to Sydney and Brisbane, and the sponsorship deal with the Jets.

NBL Round Seven Guide (880KB pdf)