It begged the question: "What did Hawks coach Tab Baldwin say to his trailing troops at halftime?"
Hawks' home-based US import Kareem Johnson said Baldwin demanded more impetus.
"We also did a bad job on defending Oliver and [we needed to improve] our rebounds," the forward said.
"That was our focus in the locker room - to guard him [Oliver]," he said, revealing that Hawks point guard Jarrod Kenny and the other guards had got under the skin of the Taranaki point guard, who drew eight fouls in the defining stages of the game.
Taranaki captain Aaron Bailey-Nowell lent credence to Johnson's theory.
"Adrian's our leading scorer so to deny him the ball, Hawke's Bay did a great job.
"We needed to adjust quickly to give him the ball in other areas of the court," lamented the fouled-out forward as he massaged his aching muscles and stretched his weary legs while perched in a chair.
Johnson said the bench-look to the Hawks in the first half was the coach's opportunity to give more players game time.
"Dustin [Scott] was in foul trouble, too, so we had to rotate bodies in there," he said of the American import centre.
Johnson, 33, missed a double-double in posting a game-high 22 points, collecting nine rebounds, taking two steals and putting up two blocks.
"I'm just happy we came out with a win. It's not about me," said Johnson, sporting his trademark Cheshire cat grin.
He thanked the half-full Pettigrew-Green Arena of Hawks faithful, vowing to "try to do a better job next time".
Bailey-Nowell described their first half as decent and a premature lead as US import centre Suleiman Braimoh claimed a double-double 17 points and 10 rebounds.
It was a strange start, taking almost two minutes before Taranaki registered the first points of the game.
Two quick shots from outside the arc from Hawks shooting guard Everard Bartlett set the tone for a 12-6 lead, prompting Taranaki coach Daryn Shaw to call time out.
Midway through the first quarter, Baldwin strung a rash of changes and his counterpart responded accordingly.
It was touch-and-go but a clutch, three-point drop from the top of the D from captain Paora Winitana, who started off the bench, took the Hawks to a 25-23 lead at the buzzer.
Early in the second quarter, Bailey-Nowell copped an elbow on his jaw from Johnson and got up sluggishly from the floor as Winitana showed concern.
Four minutes into the spell, it was a fist-pumping "And one!" as Anderson nudged the visitors ahead, 35-33.
It was game on as the lead changed hands 14 times before Taranaki snuck ahead, 46-42.
With 1:22 to go, Baldwin called time out as the visitors out-rebounded the Hawks, 20-13, to go into the changing shed 52-44 up.
"Hawke's Bay came out in the second half with their big starting five so that put a lot of pressure on us," Bailey-Nowell said. "We tried to weather the storm but they stayed low and started running on us in transition," he said.
Taranaki were inexperienced so it was a timely lesson.
"We need to use the entire team to stay in the game for the four quarters," said Bailey-Nowell, mindful they were sucking it in hard.
He lauded Baldwin's ploy of employing a latent burst of energy in the second half, although foul trouble may have induced that.
The Hawks levelled terms 63-63 with five minutes to go in the third spell before Scott urged the Hawks bench to cheer them on as they pushed ahead, 70-67.
A rattled Taranaki conceded a rash of fouls and coughed up possession from unforced errors to trail 72-60 at the end of the spell.
It was one-way traffic in the final fling as Taranaki, trailing by 12 points, were reduced to lucky-dip shots from outside the arc.
While the defence looked flimsy in the first half, it was good to see rookie bench players clock some valuable minutes.
No doubt against stronger teams, an inferior 40-35 Hawks' rebounding stats may be a moot point.
While flirting with getting fouled out, Hawks forward Darryl Jones started the game and helped mop up in the physicality stakes in 11:33 court time. Bartlett added 19 points to the Hawks' cause.
