Basketball: Taranaki beat Giants

Taranaki Mountain Airs captain Aaron Bailey-Nowell led from the front to steer his side to their first National Basketball League win of the season with a 89-71 victory over the Nelson Giants in New Plymouth last night.

Bailey-Nowell scored 26 points and hauled down nine rebounds as Taranaki withstood a third quarter revival from Nelson to get their first points of the season.

The Giants, missing NZ Breakers forward Mika Vukona and Cairns Taipans guard Phill Jones, led after the first quarter before Taranaki found their range to go to the interval 42-30 ahead.

But Nelson roared back into contention to narrow the gap to two points in the third quarter as they looked to grab their first win of the season before Taranaki raced away with the match with a 31-point fourth quarter.

Bailey-Nowell got useful support from US imports Jack Leasure (20) and big centre Marcus Campbell (19) while the Nelson effort was led by 20 points to Texan forward Daryl Dora and 19 to Rod Grizzard.

- NZPA