Rams thump Taranaki

Canterbury Rams thumped Taranaki Mountain Airs by 33 points to notch back-to-back NBL victories. Yesterday’s contest was effectively over in the first quarter as the Rams raced out to an early 33-13 lead before closing out the one-sided game for a statement-making 107-74 win. The scoring load was spread throughout the team with five Rams players notching double figures, including captain Luke Aston who was their top-scorer with 16 points. Kevin Foster of the Mountain Airs was the game’s highest scorer with 18 points.

(Luke Aston 16, Emmett Naar 15, Cameron Gliddon 15, Alexander Talma 12, Michael Karena 12) (Kevin Foster 18, Derone Raukawa 16). Q1: 33-13, Q2: 55-31, Q3: 76-53. The Brooklyn Nets’ New Zealand general manager has been suspended for one game without pay and fined US$25,000

(NZ$37,400) in the latest twist in the team’s volatile playoff series with the Philadelphia 76ers. The NBA said Marks entered the referees locker room after the Nets lost Sunday’s game four 112-108. The Nets’ Jared Dudley and 76ers’ Jimmy Butler were ejected from the game after a melee erupted in the third quarter. The NBA said Marks will serve his suspension tomorrow when the Nets and 76ers play game five at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Centre.

Sean Marks

Two good wins for Kiwi squash players, Joelle King and Paul Coll, at the PSA Platinum event in El Gouna, Egypt, but now the world’s top ranked players await them. King and Coll had straight games victories in their third round matches of the tournament which has its main glass court in front of the Pyramids and is a hot-bed for the sport. King beat Egypt’s Mariam Metwally 11-4 12-10 11-4 and Coll followed King into the quarterfinals after he defeated Wales’ Joel Makin 12-10 11-5 11-7 in a match which lasted over an hour. Coll will face Egyptian world No 1 Ali Farag, while King will take on world No 1 and defending champion Raneem El Welily, who has an 11-4 head-tohead lead over King.