KEY POINTS:
Hawks 85
Heat 76
The Bay Hawks kept their NBL title defence alive with a composed victory over Harbour Heat at the North Shore Events Centre last night.
Harbour went into the match having topped the regular season table but their lack of playoff experience was exposed by the Hawks, who are contesting their fourth straight post season campaign under coach Shawn Dennis.
The Hawks led by just a point at three-quarter time but held their composure in a tense final quarter to book their place in a three-match final series against Nelson that begins in Napier on Thursday night.
The defeat would have been a bitter pill for Harbour to swallow but, in the end, they were simply outgunned by a Hawks side that shrugged off the absence of reigning MVP and three-point expert Paora Winitana.
Bench forward Arthur Trousdell landed the telling blows down the stretch with two three-pointers that kicked the Hawks seven points clear with a minute remaining. A Nat Connell three gave the Heat brief hope but Oscar Forman and Connell missed long range shots that would have cut the deficit to one score and the Hawks landed their free-throws to close out the victory.
Both sides missed their first three shots during a nervy start, but the Heat eventually settled the better thanks to a three from co-captain Brent Charleton.
With point guard Paul Henare running the show imperiously, the Hawks gradually asserted their dominance to eke out an eight-point lead with time running out in the first quarter. But a brace of three-pointers from Forman helped the Heat recover to lead by a point at quarter time.
A run of long-range bombs from Everard Bartlett kicked the Hawks clear, with the Heat paying the price for leaving Bartlett open on the perimeter as he shot six from eight from beyond the arc in the first half.
The Heat rediscovered their trademark defensive intensity before the bleeding got too severe. A tetchy affair from the start, the game always threatened to spill over. The Hawks' Australian forward Andrew Rice was the first to succumb to his frustration after being called for a charge on Daryl Cartwright, throwing the ball at the prone Heat forward in disgust.
The blow-up earned Rice a technical and a third personal foul and he was left to contemplate his actions from the bench as the Heat closed to within a point before a Henare lay-up on the buzzer gave the Hawks a 36-39 halftime lead.
With the Heat shooting a miserable 31 per cent from the field, they would have counted themselves lucky to be trailing by just three points.
Co-captain Hayden Allen was ice cold, shooting 0/6 from the field. The Heat didn't have a single player in double figures for the half, with Forman's nine points their biggest contribution.
Allen finally came to life with six quick points in the Heat's 10-2 run to open the second half. They led for most of the third quarter only give up a five-point swing when Connell picked up a technical foul for arguing too long and too loud over a travelling call.
