Sharks fire early three-point blitz
Southland Sharks coach Rob Beveridge knows his team’s round one National Basketball League hammering of the Wellington Saints needs to be put into perspective.
But the veteran coach says there is still plenty to like from what the Sharks delivered at ILT Stadium Southland in Invercargill on Friday night, in their 117-81 victory.
The win came against a team that was labelled the ‘baby Saints’.
Defending champions Wellington Saints were missing basically their entire starting five for the trip to Invercargill.
Beveridge acknowledged that, but he also did not shy away from heaping a lot of praise on his team.
He said the build-up to the season had been restricted with Mojave King and Brayden Inger only having a couple of sessions within the group before Friday night’s opener.
‘‘We tried to keep things as simple as we could, and obviously they fitted in exceptionally well. We came out on fire.’’
The Sharks’ three-point shooting was ruthless, landing 17 from 23. Alonzo Burton landed eight from eight himself from three-point territory, reaffirming his status as having one of the hottest shots in the New Zealand league.
‘‘To be honest I don’t know if I’ve ever coached a team that has shot the threepoint shot like that, it was off the charts,’’ Beveridge said.
‘‘We are going to have those games when we are on fire. It doesn’t matter what team we play, we can put that performance out there. We’ve got an enormous amount of firepower this year.’’
Beveridge pointed out the players were still getting to know each other and he himself was still getting to know some of the players.
‘‘So from that perspective it was just great to be able to play everybody, particularly all the young ones which was really good.’’
Beveridge is looking forward to a North Island road trip this weekend.
Southland take on the Franklin Bulls on Saturday before the Manawatu Jets in Palmerston North the next day.