The Manawatu Jets win the NBL thriller with the Canterbury Rams

It turned out to be an excellent advertisement for NBL Basketball in Whanganui while the Media Go Manawatu Jets overturned a 20-point loss in just seven days to defeat the Wheeler Canterbury Rams Motor Company 95-94 in a thriller in overtime at Springvale Stadium. Saturday night.

Playing two of his three games in his second home, a Jets goal after a rebound by Kuan Iverson sparked a delusion in the final seven seconds of the game while Rams but coach Mark Dickel had already played his last trump with the last time of the Cantabres.

There was confusion for a while as the Jets thought the referees were going for a second overtime period of five minutes, but the weather meant that the Rams had one more possession of the field two seconds from the end of the game

Winston Shepard III (20 points, eight rebounds) had to immediately blow up his three-pointer attempt but failed to connect. There will be raucous cheers from a bloated crowd who hopefully will want to come back in greater numbers this weekend for the third match of the Whanganui NBL league when the Jets will meet the mighty Wellington Cigna Saints.

The Jets reported that it would be a different night than Christchurch, as Iverson (29 points, 19 rebounds) started with a few sweet pointers to let the Rams scramble for the start of the game. They redoubled efforts by Shepard and Xaiver Thames (31 points, four rebounds) to tie the match 14-14, a series of fouls left by the Jets. At the finish, Iverson missed three goals for a rebound goal and Daist Knight made a good flight to win three and 25-20 in the quarterfinals.

There were three key elements in the Jets 'victory: their ability to convert to points (13c compared to Rams' five), moving away from the fast break (17 points against eight) and the leash. Knight's amazing individual performance (36 points, five rebounds).

While Iverson was magic at the beginning and end of the game, it was Knight who was holding everything together, especially when the Rams locked the Jets out of their keyhole and they had to become very inventive with dashes and go out of the circle to release someone for a shot.

Brandon Lucas (15 points, seven rebounds) did his job to eliminate the workload of Knight and Iverson

The Rams began to find their marks while Shepard and Thames were calm and gathered, while Julian Williams-Washburn (10 points, 10 rebounds) was frustrated by making a big check on Rangimarie Dougall-Mita to bring him down as they both went up the field.

After a double foul, Williams-Washburn was controlled by Dickel until the third quarter the chance that he would make a foul at a crucial stage near

The Rams finally took the lead for the first time with 4m 42s before half-time, but they did not keep it because the Jets persevered and Knight snatched a ball to sprint on the buzzer for 51-49

But then the Rams have shown why they are currently in the Top 4 while they increased their aggression and spoiled the Jets' attack, with the local team only receiving two buckets in the five first minutes of

Michael Karena (10 points, 6 rebounds) was brought in and muscled against the penetrations of the Jets in the hoop, as they could not get around him, and the Rams stung to have a quarter dominant 19-9 "

But the Jets will not give up.

As coach Tim McTamney supposed after, it was not that they played brilliant basketball or even a better quality than the Rams, c & # 39; It's just the Jets recovered from all the misfires and clumsiness of staying in the fight and finally they were shooting for the shot with the visitors again.

The long bombs that they missed in the third quarter began to go into the net, while the rush points were intense (Jets 19 points, Rams 12).

Knight, Lucas, and Knight managed to scramble three consecutive pointers again, and a game that seemed to have disappeared at 72-64 was suddenly 77 – all with 5m 40s remaining. 19659002] Despite some passes and buckets beautifully worked by the Rams, the Jets got their bombs and made sure to land their fake bullets, taking a timeout with 1m 20s left and trailing 85-84.

Thames was calm and nailed his bucket with 44s left, but Knight was in another area as swept to the right on the other end for a pressure of three pointers with 21s left.

Knight sought to use each of these seconds before feeding Shepard, who could not land. match-win, then the desperate throws beat Karen's ball under their net while the time was up.

The Jets hit the first goal in overtime. Iverson made a decisive pass to bench player Darryl Jones – who scored four points and two rebounds – McTamney's "unsung hero".

The Jets clung to their two-point lead until Thames took the Rams with free throws for 93-91, then they closed the keyhole as for the first time as the Jets could not beat Despite the fact that his 34th rebound ball was removed, Thames looked for Karena but his pass was missed, and the Jets had a chance but Iverson missed his shot, forcing another rebound.

Knight took a long shot that hit the rim and Iverson climbed over the rest to hit him just for what proved the winner.

McTamney could only express his pride for the team to have rebounded in seven days, despite having two liners before Oscar Oswald remained on the bench with his injury.

"Down [in Christchurch] we did not play ball, we only traveled with nine guys," he said

"You're pretty much against it, but everyone does it

"Even after a third quarter of horror, the team did not stop believing because McTamney said that they had agreed that these patches occur this year." 19659002 "You play through these moments, let's stick together, and play together. "

" We made things difficult. "

The Wellington Saints, the defending champions 2017 and currently second on the table, will represent a tougher challenge this year. Saturday, tipoff 7 pm