By Anendra Singh Hawkes Bay Today

IT WAS a case of "oh baby!", no matter how the avid basketball fans were going to look at it at the game in Napier last night.

IMS Payroll Hawks captain Paora Winitana was conspicuous in his absence in the match against AdviceFirst Waikato Pistons at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale.

It was announced the guard was with his wife, Tia, who was at the cusp of giving birth to their child, the fifth one, about mid-way through the second quarter of the Bartercard National Basketball League (NBL) match.

The Mormon bishop is father to four boys and the crowd was trying to figure out if the fifth child would be a girl.

For the record, Tia gave gave birth to another boy at 8.08pm, according to those in the know last night so it was only befitting, about an hour later, the Tab Baldwin-coached Hawks claimed their first victory.

The 86-75 win came on the heels of their first game at home following an opening round overtime loss to the Wellington Saints in round one on Wednesday.

American import Dustin Scott said the Hawks only learned minutes before the tip off at 7pm that Winitana wasn't playing.

Asked if the Winitanas' next bundle of joy would be sporting pink colours, a grinning Scott, now aware of the gender, replied: "Hope so, hope so."

After their defeat this week, Scott said the troops focused on their rebounding last night and bolstering their defence.

"We seem to be getting better and better as the practices and stuff go on," the centre said as he shared the Hawks' top scorer honours with shooting guard Everard Bartlett on 16 points and eight rebounds each.

In foul trouble early against the Saints, Scott finished on four this time but drew as many fouls, too.

"It was our first home game and we wanted it really bad because we had like three months of build up so we were hungry for it."

He lauded the fans for their pivotal role.

"It's my first time here tonight but the fans were great. That's what every team needs."

It was the small men, Hawks point guards Jarrod Kenny and Marco Alexander and Pistons counterpart Corin Henry, who were dutifully putting their bodies on the line.

Scott said they had had a few words with Alexander after the first game, considering he had a tendency to shy away from contact.

"We told him to make more contact but also to control his bodyweight and then finish his lay up," he said, adding the point guard had the potential to be a great player.

For the visitors, in the third spell, Waikato captain Casey Frank took over from Henry to give him room to nip at everyone's heels.

The veteran power forward, who also had stints with the sideline microphone as TV commentator before joining the hapless New Zealand Breakers squad in the ANBL campaign, turned on some razzle dazzle which is often the domain of the court terriers.

Frank instinctively stole before flicking a pass from behind his back to find an advancing Akeem Wright on the right flank.

"I think they [Hawks] played a little more desperate then we did," said Frank who scored a double-double 16 points and 11 defensive rebounds. Import Wright had a game-high 18 points and three steals in Waikato's first game before they host Auckland Rangers.

"Without their physical leader, Paora Winitana, their guards really stepped up," he said, adding the hosts should be proud of their performance after the loss.

"Down the stretch we didn't execute as well as we'd like to have and some things didn't go our way so that's how the scoreline ended up."

His men tried to keep the Hawks off the glass but were pipped (39-35).

"They had a streak there in the third quarter with three guards who took three-pointers in a row but we got the lead back. However we weren't able to play the D well enough."

The Hawks trailed 22-23 in the first quarter in a an egg-shell treading affair as both sides found little love from the rim in the opening minutes.

In the second quarter, it was a different story as players upped the tempo.

A timeout with 38.5 seconds left on the clock brought some serenity to what was basically turbulence on a diet of steals and counter steals.

Baldwin, impressing he didn't want to walk into a losing locker room this winter, went into the changing sheds with his men leading 41-39.

Fellow Napier-based import Kareem Johnson and Kenny scored 13 points each while Alexander added 11.

Johnson and Alexander had six and eight rebounds, respectively.

The Hawks increased their lead by two points in the third spell, 64-60.

Booming three-pointers from Darryl Jones, Anamatu Haku and Kenny brought the house down.

In the last spell, Bay referee Shane Nikora had to refresh Johnson and Pistons centre Nick Barrow's memory on the rules of engagement as the Hawks player tried to raise his arms with his opponent in his face.

With 51.3 seconds remaining, bench forward Alex Talma brought Alexander down with what appeared to be a coat-hanger like defence.

In fact, senior players from both teams were in the ears of all three whistle blowers, including Apai Apai, of the Bay, and Melony Wealleans.

It wasn't a packed house in the opening match but the chants of "defence, defence, defence!" from the vociferous crowd certainly got the Hawks going.

 

IMS Payroll Hawks E. Bartlett 16, D. Scott 16, J. Kenny 13, K. Johnson 13, M. Alexander 11,

 

Advice First Waikato Pistons A. Wright 18, C. Frank 16, C. Henry 15, Z. Carter 13, K. Noyer 11,

In the night's other matches, the Saints defeated the Nelson Giants in Nelson 84-78 while the defending champion Southland Sharks were upset at home 83-77 by the Otago Nuggets.