Basketball: Vision becomes reality for Hawks

Paora Winitana, of Hawkes Bay, holds the winner's trophy with his son, Paora. Phil Walter / Getty Images

Hawks 84 Auckland 69

Paora "Bishop" Winitana had a vision pre-season that the Hawks would win the National Basketball League title for 2006, a vision that turned to reality at the weekend.

"It was clear to the point that I could feel it," Winitana said after being named Most Valuable Player in the final, won 84-69 over Auckland.

"The first thing all the boys asked me was, 'Where is it, bro?' but I couldn't tell them - maybe now we know why," he said, the Stars having to shift from their home court at the ASB Stadium which was already booked.

The North Shore Events Centre was host to the national under-17 championships at the weekend and that helped to fill the stadium - that and the generosity of major basketball fan Dennis Jones, boss of Burger King, who bought 500 tickets out of his own pocket and gave them away.

The Hawks took an early lead, made big runs in the second and third quarters and never looked like being headed, especially as early foul trouble started to bite back at the Stars late in the game.

Captain Casey Frank had collected two in the first two minutes and was benched. By the end of the first quarter the Hawks were ahead in every statistic except turnovers, and as Auckland continually failed to score in the face of tenacious defence and the Hawks grabbed the rebounds and did score, the game drifted away.

By the end of the first half Frank and Judd Flavell were each on three fouls and three others players had two. Hawks guard Field Williams was top-scorer with 15, and 10 of those came from free-throws, which the visitors led 18-7.

The Stars lacked an outside shot and an inside presence. And their usual strength, bench depth, was where they fell down, the Hawks using 10 players, the Stars eight and Flavell playing all bar two minutes.

Stars' coach Kenny Stone refused to blame the loss of 2005 MVP Lindsay Tait, who sat on the sideline with a broken wrist. The Hawks were the better team, a clearly choked-up Stone said. He bristled at the suggestion the Stars lacked intensity.

"We didn't respond to what they did. We tried to get on runs and we missed shots. We didn't rebound well in the first quarter and that set the tone. But we had a good team."

Hawks' coach Shawn Dennis said he didn't feel comfortable until there were just three minutes left and they were around 14 points up.

"Auckland can score so quickly. At one stage they closed 14 back to four - we'd talked about weathering that."

With just 51 seconds left Dennis injected 21-year NBL veteran Willie Burton, who had never won a title until Saturday but ended the afternoon with the game net draped around his neck as a trophy after the Hawks cut it down in a mirror of the Stars' actions in Napier when they won the title last year.

"I was sitting there, waiting and waiting. I knew it would happen but didn't know when," Burton said. "I can't describe the feeling. I haven't cried yet, but it might happen."

Burton played eight minutes for one point from the free-throw line in those last seconds and made two good steals, an assist and a block.

The difference between this year and losing in 2005 was teamwork, he said. "We had great individuals [last year], this year we had a great team."

He turned 44 last month and said on Saturday, "Yes, the boots are definitely hung up, the boots are gone." But he'd like a role with the team as they try to defend the title.

There were telling moments in the game that seemed to spell the Stars' doom: centre Josh Nigut drove at the hoop in the third quarter, only to have Hawks' opposite Kareem Johnson rip the ball from him as he was about to shoot, take it to the other end and score. And in the last, Frank dived to grab a loose ball, rolled it along the floor to an unmarked Reece Cassidy near the hoop, but he missed and again the Hawks turned a turnover into points.

With two seconds on the clock and the Stars' heads down, Winitana threw the ball to Hawks fans in the crowd. "We couldn't do it without them," he said.

It was the Hawks' first title in the 23 years of the NBL competition.