Delany’s best efforts in vain
The Wellington Saints’ winning run has continued as an outstanding performance from the Nelson Giants’ Finn Delany went in vain.
The 21-year-old forward scored a game-high 30 points (8-15 shooting, with 10-12 free-throws) in the 110-84 loss at TSB Bank Arena in Wellington yesterday afternoon in a spirited performance which typified the approach of his team.
Unfortunately, he was up against a stacked Saints team, meaning even Kyle Adnam’s 25 points weren’t going to be enough to get close to the defending champions.
The Saints had contributions from across the court led by Shea Ili’s 27 points, 10 assists and six steals. They also had Tai Wesley (16 points, 12 rebounds), Leon Henry (13 points, seven rebounds), Josh Duinker (17 points, six rebounds) and Jordan Ngatai (16 points) all heavily involved.
And they did it all without leading scorer Corey Webster, who sat out the game to rest the lower back strain he has been struggling with.
Saints coach Kevin Braswell gave credit to Delany and the Giants for making them work hard for the full 40 minutes for their win.
‘‘They have gotten so much better in the last two weeks. Having the assistant [Brendon Bailey] take over, who was with them last year, you can see the improvements.
‘‘For the most part they gave us a battle and I thought Finn was great in the first half. We put a real emphasis on having a collective team defensive effort to stop him in the second half and did a good job of it.’’
Delany kept his side in the game through the first 10 minutes, scoring 15 points in the quarter, but a three-point play to Ili in the final second had the Saints up 26-20.
The Giants weren’t helped by former Saints guard Dion Prewster picking up two fouls – one of which was very harsh – in the first 90 seconds of the game, forcing him to be benched until three minutes into the second quarter. It was symptomatic of the refereeing in the first half when 24 fouls were called on 15 different players, making the arena scoreboard, with player names in red and fouls in green, have a distinctly Christmas-like feel to it.
Whether the game was physical enough to warrant so many fouls was up for debate, but the scrappy, stop-start nature of the match helped keep the Giants in the hunt until a late 14-1 Saints run had the hosts up by 16 at halftime.
Despite the deficit, the Giants showed good fight in the second half, far in advance of that shown by other, more-fancied teams who have been on the end of a thrashing from the Saints in recent weeks.
The Saints improve to 10-0 with the win, while Nelson slip to 2-8.
Braswell said with nine days until their next game they would take the time to examine what they needed to improve the most.
‘‘It’s the spurts, three minutes we’ll be great then the next three we’re poor.
‘‘We had eight stops in the row to start the second half, then gave up four scores in a row.’’