Heat Hope To Burn Cougars
Tagged in: NBL
Geoff Longley, The Press
A much-improved Harbour Heat team is hellbent on spoiling the Cougars’ party to celebrate the first national basketball league playoff match in 10 years in Christchurch at Cowles Stadium on Wednesday night.
Harbour finished the regular season with a flourish, winning five of their last seven matches and their chief executive, Stephen Dally, said yesterday the side was far better than that beaten home and away by the Cougars earlier in the season.
Harbour finished fifth on the ladder, one win behind the Cougars, who worryingly ended their regular season campaign with losses at home to Hawkes Bay and Auckland.
Cougars coach Andrew Gardiner believes those glitches are out of the system and the team is firmly focused now the playoff stage of the season has arrived.
“Maybe they tended to switch off a little because subconsciously they knew they had a home playoff match,” Gardiner said.
The Cougars coaching staff have been working at ironing out the defensive deficiencies which contributed to the league’s third stingiest team yielding 101 points against Auckland.
“We think we match up pretty well against Harbour and understand their their offence so we were quite happy to strike the Heat.”
Dally acknowledged that while the Cougars had lost their last two lead-up matches that would only serve to act as greater motivation.
“But we are coming off a tough weekend away doubleheader against Nelson and Saints so our guys are match-hardened.”
He said the mid-season acquisitions of forwards Ben Anthony, from playing in Germany, replacement American Mike Bell and vastly experienced guard Prem Krishna had helped balance the side.
Harbour had previously relied heavily on the shooting prowess of guard Corey Webster, backed by 2007 Canterbury Ram Mychal Green, and struggled with its inside game. American forward Bell and Anthony have relieved some of that although Gardiner noted Bell still had a penchant for the outside shot.
Harbour has generally been a free-scoring side, averaging 89 points a game, while the Cougars average 83. The Cougars’ season shooting percentage is a healthy 47 per cent, while Harbour’s is 44.4. Where the Cougars have been found wanting is from three-point range, being eighth of the nine teams from beyond the arc, firing at 31 per cent, while the Heat are third at 36 per cent.
The Cougars lead the league with points inside the paint, thanks largely to the efforts of forwards Tim Behrendorff and Trent Wurtz.
Gardiner said Wurtz was certain to return to the starting lineup tonight after taking care of his groin niggle which forced his absence from the Auckland match.
Footnote: the last time a Canterbury side reached the playoffs in Christchurch was in 1999 when the Rams won their semifinal before losing to Auckland in the final at Westpac Arena.
The Wellington Saints beat the Hawke’s Bay Hawks 80-75 in last night’s National Basketball League quarterfinal at TSB Bank Arena in Wellington.
The Hawks’ season is now over, while the Saints move through to a semi-final clash with the Nelson Giants at the Trafalgar Centre in Nelson tomorrow night.
Scorers: Wellington Saints 80 (Mike Efevberha 18, Lindsay Tait 15, Leon Henry 15) Bay Hawks 75 (Charles Bailey 21, Chris Daniel 14, Jeremy Kench 10). Quarter scores: 18-16, 39-33, 52-61.
SQUADS
COUGARS: Paul Henare, Gerard Bowden, Paora Winitana, Tim Behrendorff, Trent Wurtz, Luke Ruscoe, Lionel Hopgood, Sam Toomata, Adrian Taylor, Sam Crozier, Marty Davison, Matt Stevenson/Ash Rees. Coaches: Andrew Gardiner, Craig Hickford.
HARBOUR: Mychal Green, Corey Webster, BJ Anthony Jr, Daryl Cartwright, Mike Bell, Mike Townsend, Karl Noyer, Prem Krishna, Daniel Munday, Daniel Barritt. Coach: Tony Webster.
