Pistons Pride!
Tagged in: Competitions, NBL
Hamilton is once again Championship City.
The Waikato Pistons completed a stunning 2-0 sweep of the Century City Wellington Saints to claim the 2008 Dominion Finance NBL Championship with a 84-79 win at the TSB Bank Arena on Friday night.
Captain Pero Cameron, who won his eight NBL title, had a game-high 20 points, including six three-pointers, while forward Puke Lenden was named Finals MVP after scoring 15 points and eight rebounds in game two.
Waikato, in claiming the franchise’s third title, became the first lower ranked team to sweep an NBL Finals series and were also the first team to defeat the Saints on their home floor this season.
Trailing 59-56 going into the final period, the Pistons hit a trifecta of threes to take a 65-62 lead and never trailed again as the Saints could not get the crucial defensive stops or baskets down the stretch.
Cameron hit 7-of-10 from the field, most of those shots coming in the second quarter, and added four rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
American guard Brian Wethers had 16 points and four steals, while Lenden posted 15 points and American point guard Jason Crowe 13 points, five rebounds, six assists and two steals despite sitting for almost the entire second quarter with foul trouble.
A Lindsay Tait three with 5:50 on the clock pulled Wellington within two at 69-67 but the Pistons scored the next six points to grab an eight point buffer with 4:11 to play.
From there crucial baskets from Wethers and Lenden and final-minute free-throws from Crowe and Ben Hill clinched the title.
Saints forward Brendon Polyblank and centre Nick Horvath led the way with 19 points, Polyblank shooting 6-of-9 from the field and Horvath adding seven rebounds.
American forward Ernest Scott, hobbled with an ankle injury from game one, finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and four steals, while point guards Luke Martin and Tait also scored in double-digits with 13 and 10 respectively.
The win secured Cameron and veteran Prem Krishna their eighth NBL championships, tying former team-mate with the 90s Auckland Stars Dillon Boucher for the most in NBL history.
It was Waikato’s third championship, the first two coming as the Titans under Jeff Green in 2001 and 2002, seasons Pero and Ray Cameron, Krishna and Hill were a part of.
The Saints, buoyed by their 3500-strong blue-clad fans, started the second half with a 14-7 run to close within three points, then took their first lead since 28-27 early in the second period with back-to-back threes from Scott and Martin.
Behind hot-shooting and six triples in the period, Wellington went from 12 points in the second quarter to 29 in the third with Troy McLean, Horvath, Scott and Martin all connecting from distance. The teams combined for eight threes in the third.
Crowe had earlier picked up his third foul at the 8:15 mark of the second quarter, sending him to the bench for the rest of the second period and putting the ball handling responsibilities on the shoulders of Krishna.
Without Crowe, Waikato were able to build a lead as the Saints continued their cold shooting in the Finals while Cameron was keeping them ahead making his first five three-pointers, his only miss coming from close range.
Cameron had 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting by halftime but only Lenden was the only other Piston to hit a trey as Waikato went 6-of-20. Wellington shot a better percentage from both the field and long-range but their 11 turnovers were killing them.
Like game one, the Pistons were able to sneak out to an early lead, 10-4 after three minutes thanks to triples from Cameron and Lenden. But the Saints immediately countered with eight straight points, including two baskets from Horvath.
Dominion Finance NBL Finals
Game Two
At TSB Bank Arena, Wellington
Century City Wellington Saints 79 (Brendon Polyblank 19, Nick Horvath 19, Luke Martin 13, Ernest Scott 12, Lindsay Tait 10) Waikato Pistons 84 (Pero Cameron 20, Brian Wethers 16, Puke Lenden 15, Jason Crowe 13)
1Q: 18-16
HT: 30-40 (12-24)
3Q: 59-56 (29-16)
FT: 79-84 (20-28)
Saints vs Pistons - Game Two Box Score (22KB html)
