The Otago Nuggets snapped a 17-game losing streak to the Nelson Giants with a thrilling 97-93 win in overtime at the Edgar Centre last night.
It was the longest active winning streak by one team against another in the National Basketball League and a 1000-strong crowd got louder as the tension grew in the final moments.
They had to, because they were sitting further away than usual. A dunk from Michael Harrison in the opening exchanges left the backboard hanging at an odd angle and the game had to be shifted to an adjacent court.
There was a 30-minute delay but the wait was worth it. Giants guard Josh Bloxham hit a clutch three-pointer with a tick over seven seconds remaining in regular time to level the scores 85-85.
Akeem Wright tried to seal the win with a drive to the hoop but, with his way blocked, he passed to James Ross, who missed from the outside.
Nuggets centre Antoine Tisby dominated overtime with eight points in 5min, but it looked as though the visitors were going emerge victorious when Pete Campbell hit a three-pointer to give his side a 93-91 lead with less than a minute remaining.
Tisby made one steal in the match and it turned out to be vital. Somehow the 2.03m American got his arms in the way of a pass and then had to hustle hard to keep it from drifting out.
Harrison barged into Tisby in a desperate effort to prevent him getting to the ball. He fouled and Tisby drilled his first shot from the free throw to level the score 93-93, but missed the next.
In the competition for the rebound, the Giants knocked the ball out and were forced into fouling, first Tisby and then Wright.
The pair made their free throws to seal the four point win. Tisby finished the match with 30 points and 12 rebounds, and Wright scored 24 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, made six assists and came up with three steals in a fine all-round performance.
"The guys played really, really well," a hoarse Nuggets coach Alf Arlidge croaked.
"Akeem and Antoine were fantastic. It was just another good night at the office for Tis, and Akeem did a lot of work off the ball that you don't always see.
"Mike Fitchett played well early on with a couple of threes, Leon [Henry] was good. Defensively, we were pretty good.
James Ross played outstanding defence on Phill Jones."
Sadly, the win has probably come too late for the Nuggets (4-8). The 90-81 loss to the Taranaki Mountain Airs at the Edgar Centre on Saturday made the climb too steep.
"I think so, but we'll just keep playing hard and try to spoil it for every other team. We've just got to keep improving.
"Losing Mark [Dickel] has really hurt us, but we showed tonight we've got some fight left."
The Mountain Airs' win against the Nuggets completed a successful road trip south for the New Plymouth-based side.
They enjoyed wins against the Giants (75-72) on Wednesday and the Southland Sharks (91-77) on Friday.
The Giants rebounded from their loss to the Mountain Airs with a 90-79 overtime win against the Sharks in Invercargill on Saturday night.
The Manawatu Jets upset the Wellington Saints 98-93 in the capital on Friday thanks to a rare triple-double by Josh Pace.
The classy guard scored 21 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and made 10 assists.
But the Palmerston North-based team could not back-up the following evening, with the Hawkes Bay Hawks winning 95-79 in Napier.
NBL
The scores
Otago Nuggets 97
Antoine Tisby 30, Akeem Wright 24, Michael Fitchett 13
Nelson Giants 93
Michael Harrison 21, Josh Bloxham 19, Phill Jones 17.
Quarter 18-25, halftime 44-40, third quarter 65-60, fulltime 85-85.
