Hawke’s Bay Hawks NBL: Up and down for the Hawks as NBL nears halfway

It was a case of advantage won, advantage lost as the Hawke’s Bay Hawks ended a six-match, month-long away run with a 50-50 record and a 12-point loss to the Manawatū Jets on Friday.

Three days earlier, the Hawks bounced into the top three in the National Basketball League with a win over the Indian Panthers in South Auckland.

But the Good Friday match, which the Jets won 103-91, saw the Hawks slip to eighth place – with, like the Jets, five wins and four losses.

Big Barrel Hawks giant Luca Yates scrambles the defence in Friday's NBL match in Palmerston North. The Manawatū Jets won 103-91.

Each side need to get back into the 12-team league’s top six for the playoffs in July, the Hawks next facing a mid-afternoon Anzac Day match against the top-three placed Franklin Bulls at the Rodney Green Arena in Taradale.

It will be the first opportunity for the locals to see the latest recruits on their home court. Dan Grida, 2.07m Luca Yates, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk and second-year coach Sam Gruggen arrived three weeks ago, having all played parts in the Illawarra Hawks’ triumph as they won the Australian NBL title last month.

The Hawks had beaten the Jets 103-100 in a home game at Rodney Green Arenas, Taradale, on March 15, when new star Jackson Ball claimed 36 points, outshining Jets star Corey Webster.

The tables were turned on Friday as Webster scored 29 points, but the 17-year-old Ball kept up appearances with 20 points, including three three-point successes from six attempts, and a 100% success rate from his two-point attempts, staying at the top of the NBL’s two-point shooting averages.

Grida, who played for the Nelson Giants last year, top-scored for the Hawks with 24 points.

The Wellington Saints and the Canterbury Rams are at the top, each with six wins from eight games.

In the Rapid League curtain-raiser, the Hawks were beaten 46-37 by the Jets and sit in fifth place.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues and personalities.