Basketball: Hawks clock up 11th in a row

TOILING: Hawks guard Alonzo Burton eyes the rim with Rangers forward Dillon Boucher (No 24) and point guard Lindsay Tait breathing down his neck in Napier today. PHOTO/Duncan Brown

The James Blond Super City Rangers showed no mercy as they made short work of the Indigo Hawks in Napier today.

The Dillon Boucher-captained Rangers are leading won 125-98 after a robust start at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale, and a relentless three quarters to deny Hawks' coach Kirsten Daly-Taylor and her troops a victory in their penultimate home game of the season.
It was captain Aidan daly and his men's 11th defeat on the trot in the the National Basketball League (NBL) campaign this year.

The signs were there from the tip off as the visitors pulled out the knuckle dusters for a 39-26 first-quarter result before backing it up with a 32-21 serving in the second spell and 29-23 in the third.

Such was their dominance that let Hawks take the final spell 28-25.

The Rangers boasted a line up that would have made a starting Tall Blacks five any other day as the Hawks look to break the shackles of 10 consecutive losses in a winless campaign.

New Zealand Breakers skipper Mika Vukona, point guard Lindsay Tait, guard Corey Webster, guard Reuben Te Rangi and swingman Eric Devendorf tipped off the game.

US import centre Terence Riberts came off the bench with the likes of player/assistant coach Dillon Boucher, not to mention Brook Ruscoe and Joshua Bloxham.

Rangers coach Jeff Green, Tait, Vukona and Te Rangi taunted referee Yalla Edwards and her umpires Shane Nikora and Jason McCabe on frivolous 50-50 calls but the coach took a "my bad" on the first count when Edwards patiently mapped it out for him.

Not surprisngly Webster has piled on a gobsmacking 31 points for the favourites while Devendorf and Tait have added 22 and 20, respectively.

Roberts added 16 points and five rebounds although skipper Boucher matched him on the board and benchboy Hyrum Harris got six.

For the homeboys, US import Kareem Johnson was just shy of another double-double 22 points and nine rebounds while Alonzo Burton scored 17 points and Darryl Jones remained on his halftime contribution of 11.

The poor first-half rebounding for the Hawks improved dramatically with Johnson (9), William Stinnett (8) and Arthur Trousdell (7) eventually coming to the party for a better second-half returns.

Stinnett and Burton shared the assists claims with four each have answered the calls for assists but that domain beloinged to Tait with six for the Rangers.

The Hawks reload for their last home game against the Rangers in a 7pm tip off this Friday.