KEY POINTS:
Wellington completed a South Island double by beating Otago Nuggets 93-73 over the weekend to draw level on points with Waikato at the top of the National Basketball League standings.
Also on Saturday night, Hawkes Bay lost a chance of securing a quarter-final spot after losing 79-90 to Nelson Giants in Nelson.
Wellington top the table with 24 points with points difference separating them from Waikato Pistons who also have won 12 games.
Nelson and Hawkes Bay, both on 18 points, are also separated on points difference. Nelson are fourth while Hawkes Bay are fifth. North Harbour is in third on 20 points.
Wellington, who beat Canterbury Rams by 31 points on Friday, made light work of Otago with Tall Blacks point guard Lindsay Tait top scoring with 21 points.
Tait, who returned to action nine days ago after a five-month injury break, also notched five assists.
Wellington jumped out to a 12-point lead but the Nuggets fought back to be only one point behind at the end of the first quarter.
Otago kept it close until midway through the second quarter before Wellington pulled away.
Wellington received valuable contributions also from Luke Martin with 13 points, 12 from import shooting guard Ernest Scott and 10 by American centre Kevin Owens.
Nelson's win was crafted by Phill Jones, Chris Daniel and import Michael Harrison. Tall Black Jones had 27 points, while Daniel added 25 and Harrison got 21 points.
After a 10-0 start, the Giants continued their hot start to take a 32-15 lead after the opening quarter.
They held it through the second, before the Hawks pulled within 11 points with a period remaining.
The Hawks, who could have effectively booked a home quarterfinal with a win, closed within seven points with just over nine minutes to go but faded thereafter.
- NZPA
