Sharks to make full use of player rotation
Southland Sharks basketball coach Judd Flavell is hoping to maximise the squad’s rotation in the coming weeks.
A late third quarter blitz gave the Sharks a 95-83 win over the Nelson Giants in their New Zealand National Basketball League match in Invercargill on Saturday night, with Flavell in the rare position of being able to utilise his squad and give 12 players court time during the victory.
‘‘It is the first time in a while, maybe since the first game that we have been able to rotate guys in and out, and it is up to me now to find a rotation for these guys to give them short spurts so we can keep it at a higher pace, it is a good position to be in,’’ Flavell said.
According to Flavell there are still some things to work on from the Giants match, heading into Friday’s game against the Taranaki Mountain Airs.
‘‘We pride ourselves on our defence, we spoke about defending the three point line with this team [Giants], they hit threes as they do and they missed some, which were good looks for their shooters, that is probably the biggest work on we will take from this game,’’ he said. ’’Offensively just continue to find our pace and of course this comes with turning that defence into offence. Offensively for us we are always best when we are out there running.’’
Tall Blacks centre Alex Pledger scored a game high 21 points, along with six rebounds and three blocks, while Nick Kay and Luke Aston picked up 15 points each and Mitch Norton grabbed six rebounds and seven assists to deny the Giants their third win-in-a-row in their second of three away games in five days.
It took until the final stages of the third quarter for the Sharks to assert their authority on the game.
‘‘Credit to them they hung in there they did a great job trying to be a nuisance and making shots when they need to,’’ Sharks coach Judd Flavell said.
‘‘We just couldn’t get a run going and any time we would get close to it they would come down and got a basket or would draw a foul and go to the line.’’
The Sharks were left to rue their shooting from beyond the arc in the opening stanza with 1/7, compared with the Giants who shot 4/6 three pointers to leave the game level at 25-25 at the end of the first quarter.
However, a late surge by Southland took them into halftime with a 45-40 lead.
The home team landed some late shots in the third quarter to extend their lead to a game high 11 points with a 73-62 scoreline at the end of the third quarter.
This seemed to ignite the home team as they never relinquished their lead, to win 95-83.