Welcome everyone to the first home game for the Mike Pero Nelson Giants as they host the Taranaki Mountainairs at the Trafalgar Centre tonight.
The Giants will be looking to bounce back from their 96-58 thumping at the hands of the Southland Sharks on Thursday night.
Follow Nelson Live’s blog of the game as we give you play-by-play from court-side.
Tip-off is at 7pm.
8.51pm Taranaki cruise late to win 93-76.
Taranaki up 86-73 with three minutes to play. Taranaki too strong in the second half.
8.39pm Taranaki lead by 11. It’s now or never for the Giants.
8.33pm Giants closed the gap to four but some sweet buckets from Taranaki have them back out to a comfortable 74-66 advantage.
8.26. Three-quarter time 69-63 to Taranaki, Back to back three cutting the deficit for the Giants late.
8.24pm Some late points from the Giants and a three from Beri certainly helps. Taranaki lead 69-60 late in the third.
8.23pm Taranaki leads 62-53. Giants looking really average, Shots are cold, turnovers aplenty and they are struggling to rebound.
8.16pm Punch and counterpunch here 57-53.
8.12pm Sam Dempster with three! 56-51.
7.50pm A 16-1 run to end the half for Taranaki. Just got really ugly there at the end for the Giants. Taranaki lead at the main break 54-48.
7.48. Ugly ending to the half here from the Giants undoes all the good work they did. Taranaki now lead 51-48 thanks tp bad turnovers from the Giants.
7.46pm Delany with a great shot over a defender who had his hand in his face 47-38.
7.43pm still 4.38 left in the second quarter. Runs and counter-runs here.
7.41pm Out of a timeout. Ali Granger gets the chest bump two buckets Giants lead 43-38 Taranaki time out.
7.36pm Tech foul and a shooting foul. confusion on the Taranaki bench over who can play. 38-38.
Dempster shows mettle in the middle but Taranaki lead 38-33.
7.33pm Bronson Beri sinks two free throws. 34-33.
7.32pm Consistent scoring from Taranaki. Two players on seven and three on six points so far. Taranaki lead 34-31.
7.29pm Taranaki tye it up with five quick points to start the quarter. 31-31
Quarter 2 let’s go!
7.25pm Quarter-time here and the Giants lead 31-26.
7.23pm Finn Delany floats through a gap. Lovely 29-20 as Finn knocks down a three.
7.21pm Timeout 2.04 left on the clock. Giants lead 24-10. 12 points from Washington and six from Delany.
7.18pm Eight points from Washington so far. 22-20 Giants lead.
7.16pm Finn getting some help in the scoring early tonight. Washington has the hot-hand 20-14.
7.15pm Curtis Washington with a nice jumper. Turnovers an issue though 18-11 Giants lead.
7.13pm Buckets rare now. Mountainairs close the gap 13-9. Prewster out Ali Granger in.
7.10pm Slocum gives up a foul but Delany goes to the free throw line and misses both. 12-7 Giants lead.
7.06pm Giants start strong 12-7 up.
7.05pm Dempster hits a three and Delany adds two on the drive 9-5 Giants lead. They now have the same amount of points they had in the whole first quarter on Thursday.
7.04pm Curtis Washington makes up for an early turnover with a bucket 5-2 Taranaki early. Curtis to the free throw line sinks two points makes it 5-4.
Sam Dempster, Dion Prewster, Curtis Washington, Joe Slocum, Finn Delany.
7pm Your Giants line up to come
