KEY POINTS:
North Harbour avenged their loss of 12 months ago with a comprehensive 82-63 win over Waikato in the Women's National Basketball League final today.
On the same North Shore court on which they lost to Auckland by one point last year the home side were several levels above Waikato.
The scoreline in no way reflected their dominance.
"We've had a year to get over that loss," coach Brett Goebel said.
"We weren't going to go down again.
After beating Wellington by 44 points in the semifinals, North Harbour broke free of Waikato with 11 unanswered points to end the opening quarter.
When they scored the first five points of the second term, the rout was on.
The lead was 51-32 at halftime, and North Harbour had another 10-point burst soon after the restart and stretched their advantage to 35 points early in the fourth period.
Goebel then gave his entire bench a taste of the game down the stretch.
The outside shooting of Natalie Purcell and American Jenny Lingor paved the way for North Harbour's success.
Purcell shot seven-from-10 from the arc for her 21 points, while Lingor contributed 18 points.
Purcell was named most valuable player of the playoffs.
Centre Jo Kailahi was the best of the Waikato side with 20 points, eight rebounds, four assists and a block.
Turkish point guard Sezen Mercan exploded with 31 points to guide Waikato to a 81-62 win over Otago in the playoff for third.
- NZPA
