Basketball: Saints go marching home

By PETER JESSUP

Saints 97 Titans 88


The Wellington Saints took Waikato's fast-break game to them yesterday and muscled home to win the national league final in a quality game pushed to overtime at Hamilton's Mystery Creek events centre.

The Titans lost Pero Cameron and Dillon Boucher to the five-foul rule as the game closed down and when they left the court the Saints found the extra legs to win.

There were stellar performances from their forwards, in particular Brendon Polyblank, who spent Saturday in bed sick, and from guards George Leafa and Terrence Lewis.

But there were no ordinary performances from anyone on either team and the entertainment was well worthy of a championship decider.

The winning and losing of it may have been in complacency. The home team were going for a third consecutive title and were content to coast at times when they held a lead.

They did it once too often. Troy McLean nailed consecutive three-point shots in the closing minutes to push the gap out beyond reach.

Titans coach Jeff Green conceded the visitors wanted it more. He was a gracious loser, with no complaints about the officiating and nothing but praise for his opponents.

"They wanted it more than we did. Their defence was extremely good and, to be honest, we were never in it," he said.

That last comment is a bit rich as they were five-up with a minute and a bit left in regular time.

"I'm not disappointed because we were beaten by a better team. It sticks in my throat, but they wanted it more. We did some silly things defensively, like leaving Troy McLean open at the end."

Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin had a big smile afterwards, happy at the skill levels on display, the intensity and the fact that none of his players was injured before the national team's departure for Turkey and the Istanbul World Cup today.

"Pero and Dillon will be down in the dumps. They're used to winning the finals games and this will hurt because they're great champions."

Baldwin expects the pain of the loss to fire them for the tour.

Wellington's Mike McHugh, named coach-of-the-year after lifting the Saints from a leaderless, losing record to turn the season around with a run of wins, said the age of the team, the way they had gelled and their commitment gave every reason to expect them to be back in the playoffs next year.

He said it had been their plan to get the Titans' big guns in foul trouble.

Rebounds and steals taken by Polyblank kept the Saints in the early exchanges as Titans guard Glen Joe ran the game and the home team sank two-thirds of their field goal shots.

But the Titans didn't match the visitors for intensity and relinquished the lead to some of their own fast-break-style scoring, and the Saints led 22-14 when coach Green called time-out.

The quarter finished with the Saints up 28-21, Terrence Lewis having shot 11 for the visitors. But Leafa had picked up two early fouls and when McHugh sat him down through the second spell the Titans worked back into it.

Green had impressed on them during the break that they couldn't turn up and expect to win. Cameron demonstrated the new-found enthusiasm when he threw himself on the floor for loose balls. Fellow Czech-series Tall Black Michael Tompson showed the Saints' desire when he threw himself on Cameron in one of the more blatant fouls.

The visitors kept the pressure on in the third 10 minutes and took a 63-57 lead into the last 10 but there was the sense that the Wellington forwards Polyblank, Tompson and Ben Knight were losing their sting as they tired and that the Waikato bench depth would tell again.

But the Titans seemed to drop off at times and Wellington never did. "I was confident going into overtime," said McHugh.

Polyblank played 43 minutes, Knight 42, Lewis 40 and Tompson 39. Prem Krishna was on court for an energetic 42 minutes but, like others of the Titans, couldn't drop the baskets he needed to.

The lead changed four times in the run home. At times there were multiple players scrambling on the floor for possession.

Cameron knew it was close-out time and tried to hit three-pointers but, after repeatedly keeping them in the game with shots from beyond the arc, he couldn't get the ones that really mattered.

Scorers:

Saints 97 (Brendon Polyblank 23, Terrence Lewis 22, Michael Tompson 20, Ben Knight 18).

Titans 88. First quarter Saints 28-21, halftime Waikato 44-43, three-quarter time Saints 63-57, end of regular time 81-81.