Basketball: Otago men miss final after loss to Porirua

The Otago men's side has missed out on a place in the final after losing 92-80 to Porirua in a semifinal at the National Basketball Championships in Auckland last night.

Otago defeated Porirua earlier in the tournament but trailed in the playoff match for most of the game.

Coach Greg Brockbank said his side got into foul trouble and struggled to find its range from the outside.

And Porirua was able to get the better touches on the inside.

Former junior Tall Black Sam King led the scoring for Otago with 21 points and Olly Smith added 19, including a buzzer-beater on the stroke of halftime to trim the gap to just one point.

But when Otago needed a string of stops, it gave up fouls instead and the win got out of reach.

Porirua had five players post double figures and Randall Bishop top-scored with 20 points.

Porirua will play the winner of last night's late semifinal between Canterbury and the Waitakere Rangers.

Otago will play the loser in the playoff for third place.

Earlier in the day, Otago lost its final pool game to a stacked Waitakere Rangers outfit 95-85.

The Rangers' squad features three former Tall Blacks in Hayden Allen, Casey Frank andDillon Boucher.

But it was guard Daniel Green who carved up with 27 points.

Otago's point guard Micah Lepaio matched Green's haul, and Sam King added 15 points.

The Otago women blew a chance to seal a win in their early match.

It led Porirua for most of the game but a series of errors resulted in saw the game slipping away, 71-68.

In its late game against Waikato, Otago was defeated 68-58, leaving it with two wins from six matches.

A win would have put the Otago women into a playoff for third place today.

Instead they will play Counties Manukau 1 in the playoff for fifth.

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