THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE CANTERBURY RAMS
CANTERBURY RAMPAGES 2001

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RAMS FALL TO NELSON IN POINTS EXTRAVAGANZA
by Piet Van Hasselt

The WestpacTrust Canterbury Rams finished their season on a sombre note, losing a tightly-contested encounter to the playoff-bound Nelson Giants on Saturday night in Nelson, 109-95. Nelson also retained New Zealand Basketball's equivalent of the Ranfurly Shield, the Burger King Cup, and claimed the $4,500 winners cheque.

The match was an extravaganza of offensive scoring talent, "lighting up" the Trafalgar Centre with some incredible shooting and heart-pounding run-and-gun style play. An astonishing 11 players reached double-figures in points, headed by Rams dominating centre John "Pope" Whorton with 31 and the Giants Phill Jones with 28.

The first quarter was a high-scoring affair with the Giants claiming an early 18-10 advantage before a Rams fight-back, including eight points from Whorton, gave the visitors the lead 30-28.

Canterbury began the second quarter with a strong 7-2 point run including a three pointer and lay-up from Captain Dave Langrell to create their biggest lead of the game at 37-30. However, the Giants produced a barrage of three pointers and created numerous turnovers to take a 54-51 advantage into half-time.

Mistakes hampered the Rams play in the third quarter with eight turnovers. If not for back-to-back three pointers from Canterbury guard Carlo Varricchio in the final minute, the Nelson lead may have swelled beyond reach, but instead the Rams were down only 77-81 at the break.

The beginning of the fourth quarter proved to be the decisive period of the match with Nelson producing a 11-2 points run and a double-figure lead which was never relinquished. Jones showed his immense talent by scoring nine points in the fourth quarter alone.

Total turnovers best summarised the result with Nelson's stingy defence able to force 23 mistakes, converting these opportunities into 31 points, and the home side only gave away nine turnovers.

Nelson was led by the slashing play of Tall Black Jones who exploded for 28 points, with three successful three point baskets, six rebounds and three steals. Captain Judd Flavell was also a stand-out, collecting impressive statistics across the board with 15 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and six steals. Giants replacement Import William Coley scored 15 points from 27 minutes of action despite only arriving in New Zealand on the day of the game.

Whorton dominated the inside play once again for the Rams, amassing his third straight 30 plus point scoring game and grabbing 14 rebounds. He was "on fire" from the field, connecting on 13 of his 18 attempts, and played in all 40 minutes of the action. Hard-working forward Jon Disher was a major factor from the bench, scoring 15 points along with seven rebounds. Langrell had 12 points and also led the Rams in assists (five) and steals (four).

The Rams completed their season with a seven win-nine loss record. While it is disappointing the team did not qualify for the playoffs, they did produce a five game win improvement over last season's results, the most by any team in the National Basketball League.

ASB Bank Nelson Giants vs. WestpacTrust Canterbury Rams
Date: 11/8/2001   Time: 19:30   Site: Trafalgar Centre, Nelson

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