Glimpses of gold from Nuggets

Darcy Knox, of the Otago Nuggets, makes a pass over Southland Sharks player Johnny Helu during a pre-season game in Dunedin last night. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON

The Otago Nuggets have a better understanding of what will work and what will not now.

The Southland Sharks pulled away in the final quarter to win 96-75 in a pre-season game at the Edgar Centre last night.

The teams will play again in Invercargill tomorrow night in their last hitout before the National Basketball League gets under way.

The Nuggets showed glimpses of the side which won the NBL last season.

Sam Timmins and Todd Withers collected 14 points apiece. When they were on the floor together the Nuggets looked the goods.

But the Sharks impressed as well.

Australian Grant Anticevich poured in 28 points and Romaro Gill was influential as well with 15 points and nine rebounds.

Nuggets guard Darcy Knox got involved early with a strip on Gill.

The big guy would have dunked had Knox not interfered. Nice early hustle. He also threw a brilliant alley-oop for Withers.

Great vision and all good signs.

The shots were not dropping, though, and the Sharks had eased to a 28-19 lead at the end of the opening quarter.

Withers started the second period nicely. He drained a couple of free throws and nabbed a steal.

Gill was dominating at the other end and Anticevich made a nice move along the baseline to complete a 16-point half.

But Timmins nailed two late three-pointers and a mid-range floater to shave the deficit to 50-46 at the break.

The Sharks worked hard to open the gap further and increased the buffer to 11 points at one stage.

But with 10 minutes remaining they led 66-60.

That lead quickly blew out, with the Nuggets providing some valuable learning experiences for some wider squad members.

There were a couple of second-generation Nuggets out on the floor. Michael Ruske’s father Dean, and Patrick Freeman’s dad Garth, played for the franchise.