Unfortunately for them it was the half that mattered.
The Sharks had won nine straight games to make the NBL final in Wellington on Sunday.
Taking on the home town Saints, the Southland team stuck well with the experienced Saints lineup but it all started to unravel in the third quarter and the side went down to the Saints 88-83.
Hyrum Harris poured in 20 points and claimed 14 rebounds in a devastating display of defence that led the Saints to their first title since 2021, and 13th in franchise history.
Jordan Ngatai added 19 points, including two clutch three-pointers down the stretch, and sparkplug Nicholas Marshall had 16 points and 11 rebounds.
The Sharks had timed their run perfectly and had hopes of winning a fourth title and first since 2018. But the side was undone by a poor third quarter and a couple of key moments in the fourth.
Keylan Boone did everything he could for the Sharks, hitting five three-pointers in his 19 points, while former Nuggets centre Sam Timmins collected 17 points and 11 rebounds.
The Sharks made the early running and jumped to a 14-7 lead with four quick three-pointers.
They also came up with some timely offensive boards to give themselves some second chances.
Harris powered the Saints as they fired back to level terms then nabbed a 25-23 lead, though Caleb Aspberry wiped that out with two free throws right at the end of the first quarter.
Josiah Allick, fresh off being named the league’s most valuable player, had been a non-event in the first quarter but got more involved in the second, and Timmins nabbed a couple of big rebounds.
A lean-back Boone jumper gave the Sharks a 44-38 lead late in the quarter before a crazy sequence in which the Saints turned the ball over, Ngatai blocked Boone, and Ngatai hit a three.
Izayah Le’afa capped a miserable personal first half from deep (0-for-7) with a miss on the buzzer, leaving Southland with a 44-41 lead at halftime.
The third quarter ebbed and flowed after a clutch three from Australian veteran Shaun Bruce and a sublime cut by Marshall gave the Saints the lead, before Allick again got the Sharks humming.
The Saints were strong on transition and starting to turn the heat up on defence, forcing back-to-back Southland turnovers, and they went up by seven when Le’afa was fouled shooting from deep.
When Timmins was fired for an offensive foul and Bruce hit from three again, the Saints suddenly had a 10-point lead, though that was shaved to seven at the final break.
The Saints kept chipping away, and at 77-64 with less than 7min to play, it looked like curtains for the Sharks.
But they would not quit.
Boone hit three threes, Timmins played with the sort of fury that powered the Nuggets to the 2022 title, and Tukaha Cooper hit a bomb in the final minutes.
They were big moments, but the Saints did just enough to stay in front. —APL
