The Taylor Bay Hawks arrested their national basketball decline in dramatic fashion with a single-point win over leaders the Otago Nuggets on Friday night in Dunedin.
In the first of two games in two nights in the deep south, the Hawks won 95-94, bouncing-back from successive heavy defeats against Auckland Tuatara, 106-75 in Auckland on May 14, and 94-78 against Nelson Giants on the home Pettigrew Green Arena court in Taradale last Sunday.
It was just the second win for the Hawks since the high-flying 2023 Sal’s NBL start of two wins at Eastern, pushing them at least momentarily back into the top six with a record of four wins (all away from home) and six losses (including all four at home) going into a Saturday-night match against the Southland Sharks in Invercargill.
Top of the charts on Friday night was sole American import Ira Lee, with a match-winning turn-around two-point jump shot with just 3.2 seconds left on the clock. He finished with 24pts, shooting 11 of 17 from the field.
The Nuggets, for whom Michael Harris scored the match-high of 31pts, led 21-19 at the end of the first quarter, and 45-41 at the end of the second, in which the lead was twice stretched to nine points, but, pulling back from nine-down again in the third quarter, the Hawks led 63-62 entering the final 10 minutes.
