Basketball: Stars prove their grunt with two away wins

By PETER JESSUP

The Auckland Stars were the big movers of the weekend's national league basketball round, with two away wins built on rugged defence to prove they can threaten.

Some described the 63-53 win over Nelson Giants as "ugly" - but Stars coach Kenny Stone saw it as a "defensive battle".

"We're never going to be a high-scoring team so we have to do it defensively," Stone said. "It's good to see we can."

They beat Wellington Saints 88-77 on the way home.

Lindsay Tait had 16 points against Nelson, then 22 in a 40-minute game against the Saints, and his combination with Aaron Olsen is working well for the Stars, who are three wins from four.

They will fancy their chances of giving Wellington another caning on home court at Unitec on Friday night.

"They rely on Terrence Lewis a lot and he wasn't shooting the ball well," Stone said.

Lewis had 17 points and Geordie Cullen 20.

Olsen had 21 and Daryl Cartwright 19, so those two and Tait got all bar 26 of the Stars' points. But Stone said he's not worried about depth at forward and sharing the scoring load - or concerned that limited scoring options makes those three a target.

"Our attack sparks off our defence. We're a young side, still learning how to execute. The attack will come with experience - defence comes from heart and we have plenty of that."

Auckland easily won the rebound count at both ends. Wellington gifted too many turnovers to be competitive.

North Harbour host the Saints on Saturday night and coach Colin Driscoll will be looking for improved shooting percentages and an end to complacency after they were hammered 102-71 by champions Waikato.

"We shot abysmally - 25 per cent from the floor - we were over-anxious in the first half and complacent in the third quarter. We gave them 13 turnovers in that quarter and that was it," Driscoll said.

Not quite. The league will look at the ejection of Tall Black Brendon Cathie-Pongia after a scuffle with former Titans team-mate Ben Hill. Tall Black Dillon Boucher intervened to prevent punches being thrown.

Cathie-Pongia will be one of four Harbour players testing out for Titans coach Jeff Green's Breakers ANBL side at the North Shore Events Centre today. Young guard Lance Baker and forward Jason Greig are also having a shot and Harbour veteran Brad Riley has also been tempted.

Open trials continue tomorrow with Green looking to add squad depth behind Tall Black and Aussie pros, as well as to identify a development pool of 16-to-22-year-olds.

The Heat have been missing the services of forward Milos Pejovic, out another couple of weeks with a wrist broken in pre-season, but his size and ability should ensure he gets looked at if form returns.

The Palmerston Jets beat Taranaki 90-66, Greg Newbold 26 points, Taranaki relying on import Link Abrahams for 20 and veteran American Willie Banks, 16.

The Hawks recovered from a 102-96 loss to Otago on Friday to dump Canterbury 100-93 in Christchurch on Saturday.

Adrian Majstrovich was their destroyer, 23 and 25 points respectively, but Paora Winitana top-scored on Friday with 26, and shot 15 on Saturday.