Basketball: Bridge Battle thrills

Auckland Waitakere defeated crosstown rivals Harbour Heat last night 82-79 at the ASB Stadium in Kohimarama.

The home team led 42-40 at halftime and in the third quarter the Stars slowly pulled away. The Stars are one of the league's favoured teams and are gunning for their third title in a row.

Elsewhere, Nelson rebounded from their loss to Taranaki on Friday to hold off Waikato 90-82 in a National Basketball League match in Hamilton yesterday.

Nelson were in command at halftime before Canadian Vidal Massiah sparked a 26-12 third quarter for Waikato to bring them back into contention.

Waikato then got to within one point inside the final three minutes, but Nelson responded from beyond the arc to ease away for victory.

American Eric Freeman led Nelson with 25 points, while forward Ben Hill headed the Waikato scoresheet with 18.

* Tall Black Kirk Penney played just 1m 15s and contributed two points as defending champions Maccabi Tel Aviv sealed a spot in the Euroleague quarter-finals with an 82-76 win over Climamio Bologna of Italy. Maccabi have finished 5-1 in Top 16 play and now face Olympiacos of Greece.

-HERALD ON SUNDAY