Saturday night was the biggest turnout at Springvale Stadium of all the three NBL games played in Whanganui.
Saturday night was the biggest turnout at Springvale Stadium of all the three NBL games played in Whanganui.
There was no fairytale overtime win at Springvale Stadium this weekend as the Go Media Manawatu Jets met a Cigna Wellington Saints team reaching the height of their powers with a clinical 113-93 victory on Saturday night.
The third and final NBL 'home' game the Jets had brought to Whanganui pulled their biggest crowd through the double drawcard of the team's thrilling success the previous weekend against the Wheeler Motor Company Canterbury Rams, along with the chance to watch the best in the business in the defending champion and current table-topping Saints.
And for the first two quarters at least, the Jets managed to hang with the Saints and drag them into the same scrappy dogfight as they did against the Rams, leading briefly in the first quarter and then making a good comeback from 13 points down midway through the second quarter to just trail 47-43 at halftime.
But the Jets third-quarter blues returned, only this time because the Saints stopped sleeping on them and upped their pace, aggression, and most importantly their accuracy, as the long bombs that were missing in the first half began to swish the net, while they were ruthless with free throws (88.5 per cent).
LJ Peak (38 points, four rebounds) started living up to his surname as he caught fire at just the right time, while Shea Ili (23 points, four rebounds) was lightning around the court in creating opportunities and putting the Jets back on their heels.
Captain Leon Henry (18 points, five rebounds) loved to impose himself as the more physical it got, the more he smiled.
The Saints welcomed the Jets trying a pot shot contest with them in the second half as they could land only six three-pointers from 30 attempts (20 per cent) compared to the visitors with 18 from 34 (52.9 per cent), as a scoreboard which the Jets had managed to keep in check was now totally out of hand at 84-66 heading into the last period.
The Jets franchise players Daishon Knight and Kuran Iverson, both with 30 points and 5-7 rebounds, did what they could, but the momentum was against them as Knight missed all four of his three-pointers while Iverson hit three from 11, as the Jets air-balls were deflating for the crowd.
Iverson took a hard tumble in the second quarter and was favouring his ankle, limping off for a time and twice leaving the bench to head down to the far corner of the stadium to try and walk it off, with his timing no doubt affected given he got close to being in foul trouble.
Brandon Lucas (12 points) tried to offer the same support as he did against the Rams but was now unable to overcome a much stronger defensive screen, while Troy Temara (14 points, nine rebounds) had his moments with more court time.
When it was obvious the Jets had no chance of a comeback, coach Tim McTamney gave his youngsters Haize Walker, Nikola Borota-Angelich and Michael Welch a few minutes each to pit themselves against the champs, and it would have been a rough education.
A hard spill and leg injury slowed down the Manawatu Jets star player Kuran Iverson.
The Saints, with their host of Tall Blacks, just had all around more firepower, as evidenced by the fact their bench players, led by Shaun Bruce (eight) contributed an impressive 24 points, compared to two from the Jets bench.
However, McTamney pointed out that two of his regular bench had to be game starters with three players out.
"Limited resources, we were having a roll in the first half," he said.
"We were making a lot of effort plays, which is not necessary scoring. Hanging in there with rebounds and second plays.
"But then, to be frank, they shot the living s**t out of us. They just made shots they didn't make before in the second half."
McTamney had tried to slow the momentum with a couple of tactical time outs, but once the Saints got away on them a second time they didn't look back.
"We had open looks, we didn't always make the most of those."
The coach was happy with his team becoming competitive again in the fourth quarter, only losing it 29-27, with a couple of good steals and better shooting.
Of the developing players, Theo Johnson (five points, four rebounds) covered nearly 25 minutes and Temara was much improved.
However, they had little answers for Peak, who McTamney said had his best game of the season – at one point verbally jousting with Iverson before just running around him and then through the rest of the Jets defence for a sweet layup at the keyhole.
McTamney also thanked the large crowd for turning out to watch them, as it raises the possibility the Jets may consider playing other NBL matches in the town in future seasons.
