In his own words, Tom Ingham had his best game ever in a Nelson Giants shirt on Friday night.
His timing was impeccable as his strong first half thanks in part to being in the starting five, helped the Mike Pero Giants to an 86-74 win over the Hawke’s Bay Hawks at the Trafalgar Centre.
What looked comfortable in the finish was anything but with one quarter to play.
With Tom sitting on the bench, the Hawks won the third quarter 24-8, pulling them back into a match they seemed destined to lose by plenty at halftime.
Tom scored 16 of his 21 points in the first half to give the Giants a commanding lead.
Tom added nine rebounds and two assists in his stellar performance.
“Once that first three dropped I felt good so I thought why not shoot another and that went down.”
Tom says team-mate Dion Prewster has been “taking me under his wing”.
“Dion has been working on my shot and when you have people like that helping you it makes games like this extra special.
“It’s easily my best game ever for the team.”
Tom says the Giants, who were missing point guard Kyle Adnam and captain Sam Dempster through injury, just knew they had to stick to their structures and game plan in the fourth quarter.
Key buckets from stand-in skipper Finn Delany (24) and Dion (23), who had an up and down night, proved decisive down the stretch as the Giants kept their season alive.
They will now have to reverse the form book and take out the table-topping Wellington Saints in Nelson this Friday.
