The Auckland Stars turned on the heat in the fourth quarter to outplay the Taranaki Mountain Airs in the national basketball league at ASB Stadium last night.
The competition leaders outscored the visitors 32-17 in the last stages to win comfortably 99-82.
Auckland were slow starting, with Taranaki gaining a
number of turnovers in the first quarter to go out to a 27-21 lead. Cody Toppert was accurate from the three point line with Brock Gillespie responding for the Stars from the outside scoring 11 points.
Shooting let Auckland down in the next quarter with Taranaki capitalising on the turnovers to hold a 43-33 lead. Gillespie injected some spark back into the game with a three pointer and Josh Nigut battled his way around Tony Rampton to have the Stars ahead 46-44 at the break.
Lindsay Tait fired up after having a technical foul called on him and directed play well in the third period, giving Casey Frank and Nigut opportunities to score.
Auckland coach Kenny Stone said they knew that Taranaki would come out hard.
"Their base game suited us, they gave us everything they have got but when they tired in the fourth quarter we kept running and our experience came through," said Stone.
"We have two battles coming up in the next week, Waikato on Tuesday and the Wellington Saints back home on Friday.
"We still have a long way to go to secure a home court semifinal and we need to build towards that," he said.
In the other match yesterday in Dunedin, the Manawatu Jets just edged out the Otago Nuggets 123-121. The Jets led 47-42 at halftime.
