Basketball New Zealand

March 13, 2010

Saturday Night will be full of some interesting match ups with four games been played around the Country tonight.

Pistons won’t rest on laurels

By IAN ANDERSON – Waikato Times

Waikato Pistons coach Dean Vickerman isn’t one to be satisfied with a job half done.

Vickerman and his side had done a lot of work pre-season on their running game and it paid dividends in their opening National Basketball League win over the Nelson Giants last week.

However, Vickerman acknowledged there were improvements to be made on the two-times defending champions’ half-court game.

“We spent so much time pre-season getting our running game going that our half-court offence suffered a little,” Vickerman said ahead of tonight’s Week Two clash against the Taranaki Mountainairs at Te Awamutu Events Centre.

“The execution needs some tightening up.

“We’ll continue to work on our rebounding too, as that can be a strength of ours. It can also be a strength of Taranaki’s,” Vickerman said.

Big centre Alex Pledger led the way in the win over the Giants with 20 rebounds but the Pistons may be without the presence of bench centre/power forward Mike Homik, who rolled an ankle in training this week and is rated a 50/50 chance of being able to play tonight, according to Vickerman.

However, the hosts will have the services of veteran forward Puke Lenden, who missed the opening match through injury.

Taranaki came close to breaking their losing streak of 17 when going down 84-82 to Nelson last week, with imports Jack Leasure and Demarshay Johnson prominent.

“Their imports put up good numbers but they didn’t get a lot of offence from Aaron Nowell and Jeremiah Trueman and I think they’ll expect them to be more of a factor this week,” Vickerman said.

Import guard Eric Devendorf made a spectacular debut in Week One with 49 points and Vickerman expected that would result in some extra attention tonight.

“I think they’ll be aggressive in limiting his catches and closing him down coming off screens. “He’s going to have to expect that,” Vickerman said.

Jeter: Defence vital against Bay Hawks

By DANIEL RICHARDSON – Manawatu Standard

Manawatu Jets guard Richard Jeter wants to lift his defence when the Jets host the Bay Hawks at Arena Manawatu tomorrow night.

The 1.98m American scored 29 points last weekend but wasn’t happy with his overall performance in the opening-night loss to the Wellington Saints.

Jeter, 29, was white-hot in the second quarter last Saturday, when he scored 18 points to set the crowd alight, but he said his thoughts were now on the Hawks.

“Defence is all I’m focused on. Scoring will take care of itself.

“We’ve got a pretty good team that we will be facing on Saturday. They’re coming off a pretty good win. They have a balanced team.

“We all need to take responsibility and play defence as a team.”

The Jets were out-rebounded 44-37 by the Saints but played a large part of the game without any big men on court as coach Ryan Weisenberg tried to play an up-tempo offence.

“I only had four rebounds,” Jeter said.

“I think our goal is to get as many as possible. Four rebounds isn’t cutting it. There’s no excuse.”

Weisenberg said his team were soft on defence last week and needed to be dynamic tomorrow.

“I think we played very passive defence, which is not a characteristic of my coaching,” he said.

“I don’t know where it came from; like I told the guys, never in my life have I given up 100 points, let alone two weeks back to back, so it was really embarrassing.

“I’d rather they make an aggressive mistake than a passive mistake, because passive mistakes seem to keep mounting up.”

The Jets don’t have to cast their minds back far to when they were beaten 110-83 in the pre-season by the Hawks, when former Jet Jamil Terrell dominated the boards.

The Hawks are without star point guard Paul Henare and are coming off a tough trip to Invercargill, where they beat the Southland Sharks 105-90 in overtime.

American Ronald Allen hasn’t recovered from his back problem and will sit out another game, which is a crushing blow for the Jets.

The 2.08m power forward has struggled after going down at training last week, and the doctor said yesterday he would not be fit for tomorrow’s clash.

Jeter lacked scoring support last week from his team-mates, with co-captain Kaine Hokianga, 17, the only other player in double digits.

Players like Piers Finch, Hugh Quinlivan and Matt Te Huna need to weigh in with points to provide support.

Manawatu Jets: (from) Kaine Hokianga, Logan Funnell, Paul Bristol, Calum MacLeod, Callum Brock, Matt Te Huna, Piers Finch, Richard Jeter, Josh O’Connell, Adrian Torrie, Hugh Quinlivan, Riki Dalzell.

Bay Hawks: (from) Everard Bartlett, Miles Pearce, Nat Connell, Chris Daniel, Haylan Tahua, Ben Hill, George Golden, Jamil Terrell, David Langrell, Czebalos Smiler.

Mika Vukona to the rescue for Giants

By PETE McNAE – The Nelson Mail

It’s a team game and he’s just one man, but it’s still a surprise that Mika Vukona arrived in Nelson in an aircraft, rather than astride a white charger.

The international basketballer returned to New Zealand at the weekend and was soon briefed on the rebounding woes affecting his team, the Fico Finance Nelson Giants. “Rebounding” and “Vukona” go together like “petrol” and “price rise”.

The 27-year-old gets his first chance to flex some muscle on the boards when the Giants host Wellington in the Trafalgar Centre this weekend and he’s good to go.

“It’s been a little while [2007] since I ran out there as a Giant so I’m real keen to get on the floor on Saturday,” Vukona said.

After the Giants were slammed in the rebounding stats, 57-32 by Waikato last Thursday and again, 47-30, by a mediocre Taranaki team on Friday, it’s hard not to see Vukona as something of a saviour.

Defence and rebounding have been his calling cards in the Bartercard national basketball league since he made his debut with Nelson in 2000 and he takes the court on Saturday with almost as many career rebounds (1174) as he has points (1370).

Yet Vukona is reluctant to make any wild claims about his potential impact on a Giants squad which has lost tough guy Darryl Jones (knee) and tall guy Bronson Beri (ankle) for about a month each.

“I don’t approach rebounding in any special way, it’s just part of playing with passion,” he said.

“Rebounding, for me, comes from my defence. If I am playing good `d’ and making a contribution there, I find it easier to generate the heart and energy you need to be a good rebounder,” he said.

Heart and energy were aspects Giants coach Chris Tupu said were sadly lacking in his team’s display on the boards in their round one double-header.

“There’s two parts to rebounding … you have to want the ball, then you have to go and get it and we didn’t want it enough, therefore we didn’t get it enough,” he said.

Vukona lacks nothing in terms of desire. Generously listed at 1.98m, he’s carved out an international career as a relentless player, one who never shirks a challenge.

“If you come up against a player who is taller than you, or better than you, that’s where you can really help your team by taking on that challenge and trying to show him up,” Vukona said.

There will be plenty of tall ones in the Saints lineup on Saturday, from Tall Black big men Nick Horvath and Casey Frank, and springy 2m guard Leon Henry. With Jones and Beri out, the starting frontcourt of Vukona, Tony Rampton and Mike Harrison will be busy.

Saints can do better, says Pero Cameron

By SAM WORTHINGTON – The Dominion Post

Coaches aren’t often satisfied and Saints mentor Pero Cameron certainly isn’t resting on his laurels despite banking his first career W in Christchurch on Thursday night.

The Saints moved to 2-0 with the comfortable 85-72 defeat of the Cougars in Cameron’s first game in charge since wrapping up his commitments on the Gold Coast.

Cameron didn’t take the court and while pleased to notch the first mark on his coaching belt, warned the Saints would need to shift another gear against the Giants in Nelson tonight.

“Anytime you get a win away is a good result,” Cameron said.

“But we can do a lot of things better. As a team it didn’t feel like we played great.”

Despite out-rebounding the Cougars 50-38, the Saints need to crash the boards with increased urgency against a Nelson lineup that includes Mika Vukona, Tony Rampton and Michael Harrison.

Saints big men, Nick Horvath and Casey Frank, will need to hold their ground, while Nelson guards Phill Jones and Mike Fitchett will shoot the lights out if allowed time and space.

“Our rebounding and boxing out is an issue, especially when we go up against some of the more attacking teams, in terms of offence and going at the boards.

“We’ve got Mika Vukona and Tony Rampton coming up, and they’re easily two of the top-five offensive rebounders in New Zealand.

“Mika was one of the top-three offensive rebounders in Australia, so we’re up against a quality side. It will be a big challenge for our players.”

Nelson, in front of their noisy Trafalgar Centre fans, are by far the biggest test of the season so far despite the 1-1 Giants making a scratchy start to the season.

“It’s an away trip, the second game in three days and it’s going to be tough.”

Import Darryl Hudson had a field day in Christchurch, scoring a game-high 33 points in the absence of injured point guard Lindsay Tait.

Tait’s sprained ankle will keep him off the court again tonight and Cameron was happy with Hudson running the show with backup from George Le’afa.

“[Hudson] played pretty good at the point, he handled it. You want to take care of the ball and you want to run offence.”

Cameron said ideally the Saints would share their scoring but he wouldn’t ask Hudson to cool his hot hand.

“You’re always looking for balanced scoring. But if someone steps up and it’s happening for them, you’ve got to go to the hot streak,” Cameron said.

The Wellington Saints’ second import, forward Erron Maxey, made a quiet debut against Canterbury, scoring three points to go with seven rebounds and four assists in 21 minutes on court.

Nuggets Host First Home Game Since 2008

In Dunedin the OcenanGold Nuggets (0-1) will host the Christchurch Cougars (1-1) who are coming off a loss on Thursday against the Saints.

Nuggets will need to get more production from their local players, who were carried by the import duo of Antoine Tisby and Tyler Amaya who combined for 57 of the 82 points scored in the road loss against the Harbour Heat

Cougars meanwhile are still without the services of bigman Tim Behrendorff who has commitments with the Wollongong Hawks losing last night to Perth in game three of the NBL Finals.

Cougars should have the quickness advantage in the guards Jeremy Kench and Aidan Daly who will go nup against former Cougars guard Sam To’omata.

Nuggets will be counting on a good home crowd if they are going to pull off the upset against the Cougars and will need to slow down Paora Winitana who in two games is averaging just over 23 points per game.

Saturday, March 13

At Arena Manawatu, Palmerston North

McDonalds Manawatu Jets v 0800 Easy LPG Bay Hawks, 6pm

Referees – Dallas Pickering, Hayden Pipe, Jame Campion

At Trafalgar Centre, Nelson

Fico Finance Nelson Giants v Wellington Saints, 7pm

Referees – Andy Thackray, Sean Cronin, Gareth Tehan

Te Awamutu Events Centre, Te Awamutu

Waikato Pistons v Taranaki Mountainairs, 7.30pm

Referees – Melony Wealleans, Jamie Hickey, Miguel Gallardo

Edgar Centre, Dunedin

Oceanagold Otago Nuggets v Christchurch Cougars, 8pm

Referees – Gavin Zimmerman, Bevan Maslin, Matt Bathurst