That Lil Dart.

She can ball.

The Southern Hoiho shooting guard knocked down 33 points to power her side to a sixth straight win.

This time the Northern Kāhu were on the receiving end.

They stuck with the home side during the first half.

But Dart’s range-finder levelled up in the third quarter and the Hoiho built a match-winning buffer late in the period.

They pulled away to win 86-69 at the Edgar Centre.

Bec Pizzey poured in 23 points. Most of them were hard-fought in the paint.

Paige Bradley helped orchestrate the evening with some wonderful passing. She stacked up 11 assists.

The Kāhu had their moments.

Talya Brugler and Tayla Dalton netted 16 points each.

But this was Dart’s night.

She opened the scoring with a nice drive to the glass for a bucket, then dropped in the first of five three-pointers.

The Hoiho looked more connected in attack than their opponent during the opening exchanges.

Julie Wojta stretched the lead to 10-2 with an and-one.

But Megan Mullings cut to the hoop and finished off underneath the lid for the Kāhu.

She landed a triple shortly after to trim the lead further.

Brugler got busy in the paint and her physicality posed a few problems for the Hoiho.

But they took a useful 23-17 lead into the break.

The competition frontrunners scored first in the second period. Wojta shook her marker, collected a pass and sunk a nice fade-away.

Classy touch that.

Zoe Richards missed a freebie under the rim moments later, though, and Kāhu scored from a fast break.

Bradley opened her tally with a slippery move to the basket.

She followed up with a dish to Dart for an alley-oop in what was a low-scoring quarter.

The Kāhu chipped a point from the deficit and went into halftime trailing 36-31.

No-one had really grabbed the game by the polish on the hardwood.

Maybe it would Erin Bollmann with the eurostep, or Brugler with the three-point jumper followed by a lay-up, or Mullings with a snipe from the outside.

Just like that, the Hoiho’s lead evaporated.

But Dart countered with a couple of triples and the hardwood was hers.

She banged in another couple of baskets.

The Kāhu remained in reach. Shanique Lucas sliced through for a lay-up.

But a corner three from Samara Gallaher and a reverse lay-up from Bradley restored a five-point buffer.

Then Dart hit a three on the buzzer to give her side a 62-54 lead with 10 minutes remaining.

The Kāhu worked so hard to get back on a level footing only to see parity slip away in the final moments of the third period.

Dart went past 30 points with a catch-and-shoot from beyond the arc.

Pizzey had clawed her way past 20 points with a tenacious effort.

They shut the door on any comeback.

The Hoiho’s next assignment is against the Tokomanawa Queens in Porirua on Sunday.

The Kāhu beat the Hoiho 49-25 in the Rapid League game.

 

Tauihi

Southern Hoiho

Lil Dart 33, Rebecca Pizzey 23

Northern Kāhu

Talya Brugler 16, Tayla Dalton 16

Quarter scores: 23-17, 36-31, 62-54, 86-69