Basketball: Harbour turn on the heat

It was hardly pretty but it was certainly effective as the Harbour Heat out-muscled Taranaki last night to leave them with realistic hopes of making the playoffs.

In a reversal of last week's result, when Taranaki prevailed 80-64 in New Plymouth, the Harbour side fed off the high number of Taranaki mistakes to record their seventh win of the season.

Not the biggest side to grace a basketball court, Harbour harried their opponents off their game to race out to a handy 24-14 first-quarter lead that had extended to 45-28 by halftime.

Despite the presence of 7ft-tall forward Tony Rampton, it was actually Harbour who profited from the early exchanges inside with Mike King and Daniel Ryan, who both gave away a significant height advantage to Rampton, who regularly found the basket.

This was backed up by good outside shooting, particularly from Brent Charleton (28 points) and Matt Lottich (29 points). Charleton would have done his chances of picking up a New Zealand Breakers contract no harm.

The scowls on the Taranaki faces at halftime told the story as they realised they had to fight fire with fire if they were to get anything out of the match.

They played with more purpose in the third quarter as Australian livewire Brad Davidson and American Willie Banks hit from the outside and Link Abrams posted up inside to ensure they chipped away at the lead.

They also took advantage of the fact Canadian international King was forced to sit out for long periods as he lurched into foul trouble and closed the gap to within 11 points in the third quarter.

But they had too much ground to make up and might have seen their playoffs hopes slip away last night.

Considering they've finished last the previous two seasons, the win leaves Harbour in reasonably healthy shape leading into their final seven games.

With 14 competition points, they realistically need to win four to make the top-four. They start that quest on Friday night against league leaders Auckland, who they lost to 82-81.

Also last night, the Bay Hawks beat Otago 89-62 and the Nelson Giants beat the Manawatu Jets 87-74.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY