Tall Black forward Craig Bradshaw got hot from the outside, drilling five three-pointers to help his side defeat the Taranaki Mountain Airs 92-88 at the Edgar Centre in Dunedin last night.
And point guard Scott O'Gallagher had one of his best games in the Nuggets' singlet. He set the tone with some nice passing early on and really came in to his own in the final stages, scoring 15 points in the final quarter to help seal the victory.
But it could have gone horribly wrong. The home side threatened to blow a 12-point lead with 1min 40sec remaining in the match.
A relaxed crowd of 750 suddenly got nervous as the visitors hustled and forced a series of mistakes. Ultimately, though, Taranaki ran out of time and options.
The league's top-scorer, Jack Leasure, proved to be deadly. He scored a game-high 32 points, and fellow American Marcus Campbell was a handful in the paint. The 2.13m, 133kg man-mountain helped himself to 24 points. Most of those he scored leaning on either Bradshaw or Lance Allred and floating in a hook shot. For a big guy he had finesse.
For once, though, the Nuggets appeared to have more depth than the opposition. All of the starting five reached double figures but the night belonged to Bradshaw.
Taranaki gambled on leaving him to shoot from the outside and he punished them with four three-pointers from five attempts in the opening half. He finished with 24 points and seven rebounds, a fine return.
But it was some of the little things he did which also helped make the difference. His passing game has really improved and his combination with Allred is working nicely.
Allred is Mr Reliable on the post. He turned in another solid performance with 18 points, 10 rebounds and also showed a soft touch with some delightful feeds into Bradshaw.
Swingman Mark Morrison has been quiet since making the shift south from Canterbury but he chipped in with 11 points and five rebounds. It was arguably his best game for the franchise.
O'Gallagher seems to be finding his feet as well. The diminutive point guard made some classy drives into the paint and he is superb from the free throw line, knocking down seven from eight attempts.
He also got his mid-range jumper working, netted 23 points in all, and the captain, Sam To'omata, slotted in two timely three-point baskets in a 10-point haul.
The visitors made a bright start. Perhaps stunned at the pace the Mountain Airs were playing the game, the Nuggets found themselves trailing 11-2.
Bradshaw got some momentum back for the home side with the first of his three-pointers and the Nuggets began exploiting their size advantage and went in to the break level at 24-24.
Taranaki got into foul trouble midway through the second period and the Nuggets started to creep ahead.
Taranaki finished the half in emphatic style, though, with Campbell slamming in a dunk and swinging from the rim. He might have been able to pull the hoop from the backboard had he tried a wee bit harder. Frightening power.
The Nuggets protected a useful lead throughout the third period and took a 12-point lead into the stretch. They needed most of it with Taranaki finishing strongly.
The Nuggets head to Palmerston North to play the Manawatu Jets tomorrow then take on the Hawkes Bay Hawks on Monday afternoon.
The scores
- Otago v Taranaki
• Otago Nuggets 92 (Craig Bradshaw 24, Scott O'Gallagher 23, Lance Allred 18)
• Taranaki Mountain Airs 88 (Jack Leasure 32, Marcus Campbell 24, Aaron Bailey-Nowell 11)
• Quarter 24-24, halftime 47-43, third quarter 68-63
• Result of the NBL game last night in Wellington: Hawkes Bay 100 (Galen Young 25, Josh Pace 21, Paora Winitana 15, Arthur Trousdell 13), Wellington 99 (Casey Frank 20, Corey Webster 20, Troy McLean 14, Lindsay Tait 13, Kareem Johnson 12, Erron Maxey 10). Halftime: 54-53.
