Basketball: Waikato hot tip to prove too good

By PETER JESSUP

Auckland face an apparently impossible task when they go up against Waikato in the second NBL semifinal in Hamilton tomorrow, but the team are unfazed.

Auckland, the defending champions, have won nine and lost seven this season, scoring an average of 77 points a game.

Waikato, the obvious and self-proclaimed favourites, lost only once, right at the end, to Otago, and averaged 99 points. They beat Auckland home and away.

Pero Cameron is their feature player. The current Tall Black captain is sure to play a big part. His old Auckland and current national coach, Tab Baldwin, says there is no plan to stop him. What they want to do is stop him lifting the others around him.

"We plan to play defensively. We did well in that regard last time we played them but when we got down their end we failed to score."

Waikato's biggest fan, their coach, Jeff Green, has won twice with Hutt Valley, in 1991 and 1993, but Baldwin's boys are counting on the pressure unsettling their opponents.

Auckland have no injuries, and the past fortnight's three games gave them time to adjust to life without Daryl Cartwright. They have been concentrating on improving execution in shooting and will go in aiming to give their big man, Ben Pepper, some space by using his passing game to open holes for others.

Pepper's 2.11m frame will be biggest on the court but he has had trouble with double-ganging and the way the referees have or have not responded to it. Auckland's only chance is the other players coming up with big games.

Green confirmed that Cameron would be called on to play as much of the game as necessary - not starting, but spending less on the bench than he has been.

"This is the game we bought Pero for. It's time for him to earn his wages."

Waikato would play the fast and loose running game that had been their norm. They have the league's leading scorer in Clifton Bush, who averages 27 points a game.

Green conceded Auckland were the side he least wanted to meet in semis. But it's hard to see anything other than the new kids on the block getting their bums smacked by the firm hand of experience.

In the first semifinal tonight, Nelson Giants host the Wellington Saints.