Back-to-back losses for Southland Sharks
Two games into a 20-game round-robin campaign is far too early to be writing any team off, but Sunday’s showdown with Hawke’s Bay all of a sudden now has added importance.
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Manawatu Jets 83 (Mustapha Heron 19, Tyrell Harrison 17, Campbell Scott 13, Troy Baxter Jnr 12), Southland Sharks 70 (Marcale Lotts 20, Scott Telfer 16, LaGerald Vick 14, Matariki Kapea 10).
The Southland Sharks have dropped their second straight game to start the 2024 Sal’s National Basketball League season.
After a first-up overtime loss to the Otago Nuggets in Dunedin on Saturday, Southland added another entry into the loss column when it was beaten 83-70 by the Manawatu Jets in the first home game in Invercargill on Wednesday night.
It has sparked some early season questions around whether Southland can quickly find the required improvements to be a genuine threat in 2024, and even if some roster changes might be looked at.
Two games into a 20-game round-robin campaign is far too early to be writing any team off, but Sunday’s showdown with Hawke’s Bay on the road all of a sudden has added importance as Guy Molloy’s troops search for some much-needed confidence.
The Jets got out to a 26-16 lead at the end of the first quarter on Wednesday night and extended it to an 18-point lead at one point in the second quarter.
Added to the Sharks’ problems was a hamstring injury to captain and key shooter Alonzo Burton who played just 3min 20sec in total.
To Southland’s credit, the lads in orange found something in the third quarter as they went on a massive 28-11 run and remarkably at one point hit the lead despite looking out of the contest.
Twenty-two-year-old Matariki Kapea provided the energy needed from the bench while imports LaGerald Vick and Marcale Lotts started to find their groove.
However, as it turned out, that third-quarter spike in form from the Sharks subsided as an athletic Manawatu outfit took back control winning the final quarter 22-11 and the game 83-70.
Interestingly Southland’s third American import Joshua Turner played just 13 minutes and contributed just two points.
That sort of output in a league where imports can and do have a significant impact isn’t going to work long-term for the Sharks.
They will either need to get more out of Turner or potentially look elsewhere.
The good news for Sharks fans is the Rapid League crew again got the job done in the curtain-raiser and Ben Hall yet again impressed.
The Sharks won the Rapid League fixture played over four, four-minute quarters 43-26.
Hall contributed 10 points to go with his 16 against the Nuggets on Sunday.