Basketball: Rested Titans cool the Heat

The Waikato Titans came off a 2 1/2- week bye in the National Basketball League to punish the Harbour Heat 96-81 and move up to second place on the league ladder.

The Titans led by 16 at the break and 14 at the three-quarter mark. Harbour came out for the final 10 minutes looking more confident, and immediately reduced the margin to nine, after a three pointer from Axel Dench and baskets from Lawrence Dickie and Robert Tuilave.

But Geordie Cullen had other plans for the Titans, starting a run of 11 unanswered points to have the 2001 and 2002 champions ahead by 26 going into the final three minutes.

With this buffer, assistant coach Steve Agnew had the luxury of giving the rest of his bench court time, allowing the Harbour Heat to come back for the final phase of scoring.

Titans captain Prem Krishna, who scored 17 points and had five rebounds, said the team would have gained confidence before its double header in the South Island this weekend.

"We did the basics, had a business-like attitude and we controlled the game and the tempo," he said.

Cullen had a game high of 31 points, six rebounds and three steals, Krishna was next best and Mike Chappell stepped up for 15 and five assists.

A shooting percentage of only 39 per cent and 14 turnovers in the first half were Harbour's downfall, and they have a lot of work to do to pick themselves up from only two wins this season and eighth place on the ladder.

Purnell Perry was the best for Harbour with 25 points and 13 rebounds.

* The Manawatu Jets gave the Nelson Giants their second loss in two days in Palmerston North on Saturday night, winning 85-68.

The Jets moved to a 6-3 win-loss record.

The Giants lost to the Hawkes Bay Hawks on Friday night.

The Jets trailed by seven points early in the match, but had effectively wrapped up the match by halftime, leading 53-32.

Tall Black Phill Jones underlined his class with the game-high tally of 22 points for the Giants, and Stacey Lambert's 16 was the best for the Jets.

* Wellington Saints outlasted the Canterbury Rams 90-87 in a close-fought match in Wellington.

Saints forward Brendon Polyblank returned from injury to post 17 points for the home side, whose season record improved to five wins and three losses.

The bottom-of-the-table Rams looked better than their one win from eight games would suggest.

They shot 51.5 per cent from the field, led 23-17 after the first quarter and had a late chance to force the game into overtime.

Wellington's 22-6 run in the second quarter changed the course of the game.

Guard Adam Caporn had by far his best match of the season with 16 points from six-of-eight shooting and four steals as the Saints finally found their cohesion after a lean run of form.

Ben Knight and Terrence Lewis each added 16 points for Wellington who shot eight three-pointers to the Rams' five.

Clifton Bush top scored for Canterbury with 19 points. Guard Nat Connell had 17 and Rewi Manahi 13.

The lead changed five times and the Rams won the fourth quarter 25-20.

* Forty-one points from Taranaki's Link Abrams weren't enough to stop the Auckland Stars from winning 100-90 in New Plymouth.

The scores were near level at the halfway mark, but the Stars made Taranaki pay dearly for a sleepy start to the second spell.

Auckland shot to an 11-point lead at 57-46, and Taranaki finished the third quarter down by 11 at 73-62.

Auckland's leading scorer was Tall Black Aaron Olson with 30

Abrams won the man of the match award for his big haul.