Basketball: Auckland focus on finding hoop

By Peter Jessup

Auckland will concentrate on slotting shots in basketball's Challenge Cup semi-final against a resurgent Waikato tomorrow night.

The high-flyers have crashed in their past three games, managing only 63 points in the loss to the Canterbury Rams at the weekend. Guard Paul Henare has picked up some of the scoring slack but the Rebel Sport side is seriously missing captain Pero Cameron and forward Kenny Stone.

Cameron is determined to make some sort of a start at Unitec tomorrow night but won't see out a whole game as he struggles with a calf muscle tear.

Waikato, conversely, have started to find the hoop with regularity and have won their last three games, shooting 132 points as they dumped the Palmerston Jets at the weekend.

They'll start a new centre tomorrow, 2.1m Josh Kreiger joining the Warriors via college sides in Jacksonville, Florida then Minneapolis, Minnesota. Coach Jeff Green hopes Kreiger will give them the height to get around sides with big men in their attacks, including Auckland.

Daryl Johnson is averaging 26 points a game, Konrad Ross hit 30 last weekend and in Tony Brown and former Auckland import Adrian Boyd the Warriors have two of the best outside shooters in the game.

Green is taking the mid-season distraction from the league seriously. "A win would be a great buzz for an organisation that has struggled a bit recently. There's nothing like being the first to have your name engraved on the trophy."

Auckland coach Tab Baldwin says motivation will not be a problem. "After Saturday's loss the response from the team was encouraging. It was a dejected side but looked to me like a determined side - determined to work together, to listen to the coaching staff, to do the things that are necessary to get back on track."

The second semi is an all-Nelson affair, the top side Giants playing second division Suns, with the final back at Unitec on Saturday regardless of the combatants.