Basketball: Hawks fail to build on advantage

Coach Tab Baldwin said the Hawks should have won last night. Photo/File

THE OPENING round of the New Zealand National Basketball League match had an ObamaCare feel about it last night.

Scores of frustrated fans of the Bartercard-sponsored league drew blanks in the first of round-one matches between IMS Payroll Hawks and Pacific Jewellers Wellington Saints.

"The website is temporarily unable to service your request as it exceeded resource limit. Please try again later," was the stock response past the witching hour after the 7pm tip off at the TSB Arena in Wellington.

However, those fortunate enough to know the Hawks' site had the match livestream would have enjoyed the game, if not the result.

The visitors took the Lindsay Tait-skippered hosts to overtime before succumbing 93-91 despite a roof-raising three-pointer from American import Dustin Scott after the sides were locked 82-82 in regulation time.

The Paora Winitana-captained Hawks should have won the game after leading by at least six points in crucial stages of the game.

Coach Tab Baldwin simply wasn't in the mood to touch on any perceived sense of "bright spots".

"We played physically but not mentally," Baldwin said in his second season at the helm of the Hawke's Bay franchise.

It ruffled his feathers that his men had deviated from the pre-season drills they had executed with aplomb.

"I had told them I didn't want to walk into a losing locker room this season," he lamented.

Nevertheless, he wholeheartedly believed in his troops because they oozed quality.

"We led for most part of the game. They were not big margins but by five or six points and I felt we could have built on that.

"They have a lot of quality but it's a loss and in this league you can't afford that," he said before the Hawks boarded their bus to return home last night because of their next match against the Waikato Pistons in Napier tomorrow.

He intended to analyse videotape footage of their performance last night before the 7pm tip off at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale.

Baldwin was happy with the first half despite trailing 26-22 in the first quarter but rued a patchy second spell.

"We had a poor rebounding effort and we got into foul trouble with our big men."

US import centres Scott and Kareem Johnson spent a significant time on the bench in the second half.

Did Scott find his NBL debut a little challenging, especially in adjusting to the physicality?

"I don't want to make any excuses," he said, adding the Hawks had worked well on their defensive principles pre-season but had failed to execute last night.

Baldwin said their inability to find defensive positions on the court compounded their foul troubles.

"We didn't get a good flow-on effect from the defensive to offensive end, either."

They did pull out the knuckle dusters in the second quarter, the 24-13 tally reflecting that ascendancy on the other end.

No one had done an outstanding job, he said, but conversely no one had destroyed the confidence he had in them, either.

"We have to think like winners and play like winners."