Basketball: Flavell hits top form to bring Wellington to Judd-ering halt

Auckland Stars 85 Wellington Saints 79

A big effort in the third and fourth quarters took the Auckland Stars another step closer to a third consecutive NBL championship title, after they had trailed for most of the game.

The Stars were forced to play their semi at North Harbour's home venue, the North Shore Events Centre as a result of their regular venue, ASB Stadium being unavailable.

They will now have the indignity of having to play the final at the same location - against either the Hawks or Nelson Giants.

But there is one minor problem with the Events Centre next week. It's technically unavailable as the national under-17 tournament is meant to be held the same weekend. Some quick negotiating will be needed and the showcase national league final should overrule the rising stars of the sport. But with basketball in New Zealand, nothing is certain.

It wasn't an easy victory for the Stars, who looked to have left their run too late finding themselves behind by 13 points, 41-54, in the third quarter. Fortunately a run of 10 unanswered points by the Stars gave them some credibility and put some pressure back on the Saints.

The Stars tied the score at 56-56 with less than two minutes remaining - but the Saints were able to go into the break at 60-59.

The fourth quarter started with a fired-up Casey Frank dunking the ball to put his side in the lead at 61-60 - for the first time since the first couple of minutes of the game.

A period of entertaining play followed with no side gaining a significant lead but the Auckland players looked determined as the Saints tired.

With less than two minutes left on the clock, Saints Chris Anderson threw down a three-pointer to tie the score at 75-75 but then American import Brock Gillespie had all the time in the world to do the same at the other end - with former Tall Black Judd Flavell, cousin of All Black Troy, adding his own three pointer to take the score to 81-77 with a a minute remaining.

The Stars then ran down the clock to secure the win - and now they aim to give coach Kenny Stone his third title in a row.

Stone said: "Even when they were up by 13, I still felt we had the intensity to come back. We weren't aggressive enough. We needed to be the aggressors."

One of the stars for Auckland was Flavell, who is into his fifth final with his fourth different franchise and looking for his first success. The 33-year-old compiled 17 points, including three three-pointers from five attempts, something which earned the praise of his coach. "Judd Flavell was huge. You don't normally expect that sort of shooting from Judd."

Other keys to the Stars win were Reece Cassidy and Daryl Cartwright. Cartwright had 11 points at half time while Dillon Boucher and Casey Frank did what was expected. Top scorer for the Saints was import Nick Horvath with 19 alongside Terrence Lewis with the same score.

Auckland Stars 85 (Judd Flavell 17, Casey Frank 16, Brock Gillespie 15))
Wellington Saints 79 (Nick Horvath 19, Terrence Lewis 19, Brendon Polyblank 12, Chris Anderson 12)
HT: 38-47