The Augusta Taranaki Mountain Airs played a very competitive home game against the Wellington Saints in their opening game of the season.
They matched the Saints play for play during the first two quarters even though three of their players had 2 fouls early in the first quarter at the TSB Stadium in New Plymouth.
Saints Coach Cameron Pero said he thinks the Airs will give a lot of teams trouble this season.
“It’s typical Mountain Airs basketball, I have come here and lost before. They played good basketball and we are very, very happy to come away with a win.
“We have had a month to prepare knowing we are going to play each other and we are just unsure what each other runs because on game night not everyone ran their stuff.
“It’s the second year for Streaky (Coach Shaw) and he has come on leaps and bounds. I don’t think he is a new coach any more but has a few games under his belt and it definitely showed tonight.
“I didn’t think we hit our straps. I think we were good in some respects but poor in others. We need to address some obvious issues.
“On saying that, I still commend our guys for coming out of here with a tough win. It was tough, really tough and we were able to just keep ahead of them.”