Basketball: Battle of Bridge goes to the wire

By MURRAY McKINNON

The Battle of the Bridge lived up to its name with North Harbour having to go into extra time to beat Auckland 103-99 in a national league basketball game at the North Shore Events Centre yesterday.

Auckland led 31-26 at the end of the first quarter, but Harbour, with power play from captain Brendon Cathie-Pongia with four three-pointers, led 55-47 at halftime.

The Aucklanders had the better of the third quarter, with the strong Harbour defence forcing them to shoot from the outside.

Bryan Christensen and Pero Cameron were accurate with the three-point bombs, and Matt Barnett was able to beat the defence of Harbour's Purnell Perry and Robert Wilson under the basket.

Auckland had a four-point advantage heading into the final quarter.

Perry was having one of his better games for Harbour and Kirk Penney was responding to the challenge of keeping the Kings' home-court victories intact.

Christensen continued to pressure Harbour to bring the score to 94-all at the end of regulation time.

The extra five minutes saw Harbour with most of the possession and winning the game from the free-throw line.

"That was absolutely brilliant, the finals are here this year and we want to be there," said Kings coach Tracy Carpenter.

Perry top-scored for Harbour with 25. Cathie-Pongia was on 22 and Brad Riley 19. Christensen had 28 for Auckland, Barnett 25 and Cameron 16.

Auckland beat the Palmerston North Jets on Saturday night 108-94, in what coach Tab Baldwin described as a big relief.

"We have to get used to winning back-to-back games because this is what is needed to win the championship," Baldwin said.

Auckland are on the road on Thursday, playing Waikato in Hamilton.

Waikato had a win over Wellington Saints 96-88, while Otago caused an upset in Dunedin, beating league leaders Nelson Giants 102-93, after Nelson led 57-55 at halftime.

Saints came back to beat Hawkes Bay 89-76 yesterday, after leading 46-39 at halftime.

Nelson, Waikato and North Harbour are now at the top of the table with five wins.