Basketball: Win eludes Suns despite improvement

Extra personnel helped the Milestone Homes Northland Suns get up to speed in the 2012 Intercity competition at the weekend.

However, they'll have to wait another week for their first win after being defeated 62-74 by Harbour Heat Reserves.

The Suns made a strong showing in Saturday's match at the AUT Sports Centre and the addition of Raymond Cameron - younger brother of Tall Black legend Pero Cameron - in particular, helped the team match Harbour for much of the encounter. Raymond has played in the national league for years and we're hoping he will become a leader in the team because the boys all look up to him," coach Stanko Susjnar said.

The coach was thrilled with the improvement in the side's performance, particularly with the effort overall on defence, but there was still plenty of work to do on the team's offence.

"I was very happy with the way that we played, especially our defence when we were out-boxing them and out-jumping them for rebounds.

"For three-quarters of the game it was very, very even. It was only in the third quarter that we went a bit flat and they got a couple of steals and easy baskets which cost us," he said.

Auckland-based Cameron missed their big 96-63 opening loss to the NZ Breakers development side last week, but quickly showed his class by top-scoring in Saturday's game.

The side was further strengthened by Kataia-based Atama O'Donnell and Dargaville's Justin Friedrich for the game. Both players had strong games after O'Donnell missed last week's match with the flu, while bruised ribs delayed Friedrich's start to the season.

One of several bright moments during the game was a breakaway dunk by Travis McIlroy in the fourth quarter to cap a small run.

The coaching staff and the players agreed their performance was a big improvement over the round-one effort and they were looking forward to making further progress. With three key squad members still missing from the side on Saturday with commitments to play in a Whangarei tournament, the team is poised to be at full strength for the first time next week.