Injury puts spanner in works for Manawatū Jets
A season-ending injury has soured the Manawatū Jets’ first game of the National Basketball League season.
And they will have to quickly put that behind them as they have a southern double-header this week, playing against the Southland Sharks in Invercargill today and then the Otago Nuggets in Dunedin on Friday.
The Jets lost to the Taranaki Mountain Airs 83-78 in the opening round of the NBL at the Arena on Saturday night.
The biggest blow in the game was losing import point guard Jasper Rentoy to a knee injury. He will miss the rest of the season.
Rentoy suffered a suspected patella tendon rupture in a fall early in the game. He flew back to Sydney yesterday for scans.
Coach Natu Taufale said it left the players in a hole, but he would look to have a replacement on deck before their home game against the Hawke’s Bay Hawks next Thursday.
“He’s our import point guard and he looked really good in the first five minutes – exactly what we expected from him.
“It’s really sad for him; we were looking forward to having a good year with him. He fitted in well [during] the time he was here. He’s a great team guy and he brought some mentorship to the group we’ve got.
“He’s a big loss. However, we’ve got to quickly turn around and play a couple of games.”
Import and forward Troy Baxter Jr had arrived in the country after missing the Airs game and should be cleared to play against the Sharks.
Cam Scott will slot in as the point guard, and Dov Silberstein will travel with the team. Import Mustapa Heron could also spend some time there.
Silberstein was at Wellington College last season but came up to Feilding High School this year. He was the most valuable player last year when Wellington College won the national schools title.
The Jets will have little opportunity to get up to speed without Rentoy as they have limited training time this week. They would be flying to Invercargill on game day, then travelling to Dunedin tomorrow for the game on Friday, their third game in six days.
Taufale said it put a huge load on the players, and their trainings would be light. Travelling on game day was “not ideal, but it's the league draw – a schedule we have to live with”, he said.
Nonetheless, they would be as prepared as they could for the double-header.
He was pleased with how they performed in the close loss to Taranaki, especially considering they lost Rentoy early to injury.
The Jets led 21-20 at quarter-time but the Airs took the lead in the second quarter and were up 43-35 at halftime, increasing that to 60-55 after three quarters.
It was level 75-all late in the game, but the Airs managed to edge ahead at the death.
New forward Tyrell Harrison had a big output for the Jets with 16 points and 24 rebounds, while Liam Judd scored 23 points and Heron 21.
Taufale said they showed passion and determination in the second half, cutting down their turnovers in the second spell.
“We had two good looks at the hoop to tie the game. We’ll learn from that and learn from those mistakes and hopefully be ready for the South Island leg.”