Basketball: Nervy Nuggets find Heat too much

The Otago Nuggets made a nervous return to the National Basketball League with a 99-82 loss to the Harbour Heat in Auckland on Saturday night.

There had been a lot of hype surrounding the franchise's return to the league after a year out because of financial problems.

But the Dunedin-based team produced a nervy opening quarter and appeared overawed by its highly-rated opponent, coach Alf Arlidge said.

"The guys were really nervous and as a unit we had not played together, obviously," Arlidge said.

"And they [Heat] got away to a flyer with Corey Webster scoring 18 points in the first quarter. He just didn't miss. It took us a while to get into our work and in the second quarter weplayed really well."

The Nuggets were left trailing 34-17 but picked up in the second quarter winning the period 26-14.

The visitors trailed by five at half-time and had their opportunities to trim the gap but gave up turnovers at crucial times.

The Heat had too much class down the stretch and pulled away to win comfortably.

Webster, a guard, drilled 34 points, while Breakers centre Rick Rickert scored 18 points and took 10 rebounds.

Former Tall Black and wily campaigner Dillon Boucher also had a strong game with 12 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists and five steals, and BJ Anthony also got into double figures with 13 points.

The Nuggets relied too heavily on their two American imports for their points production with Antoine Tisby posting 32 points.

He also dominated the boards with 19 rebounds.

The highly-touted Tyler Amaya had a useful game with 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.

But the only other Nugget to get into double figures was promising guard James Ross with 10 points.

Arlidge said his side needed to share the scoring load and would be working hard to offer more on attack when the franchise plays its first home game this weekend.

The other area it needs to lift its game is from the stripe.

Otago missed 12 of its 32 free throws, a statistic which did not impress the coach.

"Honestly, how terrible is that?" he asked.

That cost us dearly."

Tisby was the main offender with six misses from 16 attempts and Amaya missed three of his 10 shots.

"Antoine will have to work on that but he had an outstanding game.

He killed Rick Rickert."

Arlidge was satisfied with Amaya's first run in the Otago strip but said there was room for improvement.

"To be honest, he didn't shoot as well as he would have wanted. But I think he'll grow into the role. I think he put a lot of pressure on himself in the first game, which is understandable. But he'll get better as the season goes on, as will the team."

Nuggets captain and point guard Sam To'omata had an off night putting up just one shot in 23min.

"Sammy wasn't feeling too well before the game but just didn't want to let the team down."

While Arlidge was disappointed with the loss, he said the Nuggets showed some fighting spirit to rally back after a dreadful start and will get better with more time on court together.