The Taylor Hawks have suffered one of their bigger defeats in the national basketball league in a 106-75 loss to the Auckland Tuatara in Auckland.
The 31-point demise on Saturday night was the Hawks’ fifth loss in six games since winning the opening two matches at Easter, and two days after a whiff of resurrection in a win over Taranaki Airs in New Plymouth.
With three-pointers from Jordan Hunt and Derone Raukawa in the opening five minutes of an up-and-down opening quarter, the Hawks went to the end of the first quarter up 21-20.
But they found it wasn’t happening in the next two quarters, scoring just 10 points in the 10 minutes to halftime, when the Tuatara led 48-13, and 13 in the 10 minutes after halftime, facing the run home with a 29-point deficit at 73-44 at the last break.
Raukawa topped the scoresheet for the Hawks with 22 points, including three-from-five from outside the keyhole, but the Tuatara had three with more than 20 each, headed by Jarrad Weeks, with 25.
