KEY POINTS:
Harbour Heat 94 Wellington Saints 74
The Harbour Heat will head into the NBL playoffs brimming with confidence after ensuring they will top the regular season table with an emphatic short-handed win over Wellington Saints at North Shore Events Centre last night.
The Heat shrugged off the
absence of Australian import Oscar Forman, burying the Saints with a scintillating third-quarter display.
The victory ended the Saints' title hopes and underlined the transformation of Harbour from also-rans to genuine title contenders.
"Mate, it's unbelievable," said guard Hayden Allen, who top scored for the Heat with 18 points.
"We've had a couple of seasons where we've struggled and putting it together like this in the last few games has been crucial."
The Heat would back themselves to carry their form into the playoffs.
"[Confidence] has to be high. To be number one at the end of the year, you can't really help but be confident."
The Heat shared the points around with five players in double figures.
"We don't really care who gets the stats each night, we just try to get it done as a team," Allen said.
The Heat (14-3) went into the match with a four-man bench after coach John Dorge elected not to replace Forman but it was the Saints (9-7) who looked spent shortly into the second spell.
Already trailing 47-38 at the break, Saints hardly looked like a team with their season on the line as their timid defence allowed the Heat to run them into the ground. A couple of emphatic dunks from Tim Behrendorf , who contributed 14 points, backed by a volley of long-range shots from the impressive Allen and it was all over.
The Saints rallied but never looked like overhauling the 22-point third-quarter deficit, with defeat eliminating them from the playoff race.
The Saints' early efforts suggested they might make a game of it. It took a three-pointer from Allen seconds before the buzzer to give the Heat a 22-19 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Heat tall forward Daryl Cartwright, who matched Allen's 18 points, made his presence felt under the hoop before taking a seat early in the second quarter after picking up his third personal foul. But the Heat rumbled on, with Dan Ryan nailing a trio of three-pointers to help stretch the lead to nine by halftime.
And that was as good as it got for the Saints.
The Heat may have topped the table with a game to spare but were they about to break out the champagne.
"We haven't done anything yet," cautioned coach John Dorge.
