Slam dunk: Shooting guard wins stamp of approval from Hunter Pirates

By PETER JESSUP

The Hunter Pirates hope a new Australian can help turn around their fortunes in the NBL as they come to Auckland seeking a rare win.

Struggling with only two victories from 19 games, Hunter have signed a 32-year-old American-born player from the state competition who got his Australian passport just last Friday.

Shooting guard Allen McCowan has been averaging 27 points and 9.5 rebounds for Albury-Wodonga in the South-east Australian league.

He comes into the team at the expense of the younger brother of Breakers centre Ben Melmeth.

Adam Melmeth was cut from the roster after limited minutes in just seven games in his first season to fit McCowan under the salary cap.

McCowan has been practising with the Pirates in anticipation of his signing.

It had to wait until he gained citizenship because the Pirates already had the two-import quota in Kevin Brooks and Chris Brown.

He debuted for Hunter in their 115-10 loss to Adelaide last weekend, scoring 10 points and taking three rebounds in 25 minutes.

The Breakers are giving away 500 tickets to the game at the North Shore Events Centre on Saturday night and promise further giveaways for upcoming home games as they seek to end their debut season on a high note.

Ben Melmeth is expected to play despite his continuing heel injury, and there were hopes Dillon Boucher would be in, despite a back strain. Both players were nursed through this week and need to complete training today.

One of the best for the Pirates in their inaugural season has been former Hawkes Bay Hawks and Wellington Saints import Geordie Cullen, averaging 54.6 per cent from the field with 142/260 attempts, plus six rebounds a game. He also concedes 3.3 fouls a game, the Pirates' worst.

Tall Black forward Miles Pearce has had some injury disruption, playing only 11 games of 21 and scoring at an ordinary 42 per cent.

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The Brisbane Bullets' playoff run looks like being sorely disrupted through major injury problems for representative guard Stephen Black and their import forward Kevin Freeman.

Black has a broken wrist that will keep him out four to six weeks and Freeman has a shattered thumb that requires surgery.

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Andrew Gaze was to play his 567th game last night against Cairns, equalling the NBL record.

The mark was set by Leroy Loggins who started with the Brisbane side when the league was established in 1984.

Gaze, 38, will break Loggins' record when the Melbourne Tigers host Cairns on Saturday night.

Loggins will be at the game to congratulate Gaze, but the latter's father and Tigers coach Lindsay will be in the United States at a FIBA conference.

Wildcats captain Ricky Grace, 37, will play his 450th game - all of them for Perth - against the West Sydney Razorbacks at the weekend.

He is the 10th player to reach that mark.

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The Wellington Saints have confirmed their re-signings of Troy McLean, Brendon Polyblank, George Le'afa, Terrence Lewis and Australian Ben Knight for this season. David Hopoi shifts in from Waikato and Michael Tompson shifts out to Taranaki.

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China, Japan and Korea are the three winners from the Asian women's tournament to qualify for the Athens Olympics, joining New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Russia, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Spain, Nigeria and hosts Greece.

The Olympic tournament draw will be held on Tuesday.

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Basketball New Zealand was pleased with the performance of its youth development teams at the Australian Country Cup tournament at Albury last week, though none managed trophy wins.

The under-18 boys finished fifth, but were the only team to beat eventual winners South Queensland.

The under-14 boys lost their final to Victoria 53-6,3 but played with tournament top-scorer Adam Rainbird sitting on the sideline.

New Zealand referees also had a good tournament.

Olivia Johnson from Nelson officiated in the under-18 girls' final and was awarded a scholarship to attend next year's referees' school at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Keiran Udy from Wanganui was appointed to the under-14 boys' final.