A dominant second-quarter run laid the foundation for them to beat the Falcons 78-66 in Dunedin women’s club basketball on Tuesday night.
It left Ajax as the league’s only unbeaten team after two weeks.
While the class of Ajax was evident, the Falcons showed the quality and fight to suggest it may well be their best team in years.
Tall Ferns forward Zoe Richards had 29 points, while Elise Gilbert had 27 points, the duo’s class too much for the Falcons in the end.
They were key as Ajax mounted a 16-0 run to build their winning platform in the second quarter.
Gilbert had been influential early, helping Ajax out to an 18-7 lead, before the Falcons came firing back to close the gap.
Alexa Duff (23 points) had just hit a three-pointer to give them a 27-24 lead, before Ajax rallied.
Richards came off a throw-and-go, drove to the hoop, took a bump and finished with her left hand.
And with that, momentum shifted.
Ajax seemingly scored at will and the Falcons’ offence dried up.
By the time Richards hit a jump shot in the short corner, the score had ballooned to 40-27 in Ajax’s favour.
That became 42-31 at halftime, and reached 53-33 as Ajax threatened to pull away after halftime.
However, the Falcons switched to a 2-3 zone on defence to temporarily stifle the Ajax offence, while Richards also took a break after taking a hard knock.
The Falcons used that to generate turnovers, allowing Duff and Aria Brown (15 points) to get out and run, capitalising at the other end in transition.
That led to a 15-2 run, closing the score to 56-50.
At that point Richards returned, and Ajax found the safety of her in the post to snap the run and take back momentum.
And that was essentially the game.
Ajax led 64-52 at the final break.
Duff hit back-to-back triples midway through the final quarter to bring the margin back to eight.
But it was as close to the Falcons got.
Richards had 10 fourth-quarter points to take control down the stretch, ensuring Ajax emerged victorious.
In the other game, Tia Pavihi had 31 points to lead the South Pac Magic to a 72-62 win over Varsity.
Mary Salvana also had a big night with 26 points for the Magic, while Legacy Harrison led Varsity with 19 points.
