Two basketball protests made

Press, 11 June 1984, Page 38

Two basketball protests made

Leadership of the Countrywide men’s league basketball championship is up in the air because of two protests, including Saturday evening’s game at Cowles Stadium between 3ZM Canterbury and Hamilton. The Hamilton team has protested about discrepancies in the score sheet, including a wrong score and a mistake with the number of fouls registered against the Hamilton player. Zack Jones. Jones was fouled out with seven minutes left, but argued that he had only been penalised four times whereas the score sheet showed him fouling on five occasions. Team members and officials argued for seven minutes and a half before the game resumed and Jones was seated on the sideline. After the match the final score was amended from a 100-90 win for Canterbury to 98-92. Ponsonby had protested against DB Auckland allegedly having an unregistered player on the bench in their clash at Auckland on May 31, which was won by DB, 90-76. The league commissioner,

Mr Barry Wilson, of Wellington, said last evening that he would look into both protests this morning and make a decision later in the day. At present DB leads the competition by two points from Canterbury, Saints (Wellington), Hamilton, and Bowater Nissan-Nelson, who share second place. Nelson had to go to over-time at Nelson yesterday afternoon before beating Hamilton, 8780. If DB is penalised two points, which seems likely, five teams will then share the lead. Hamilton’s protest against Canterbury is unlikely to succeed. Results of week-end matches:— Canterbury 98, Hamilton 92; Saints 89, DB Auckland 77; Napier 87, Ponsonby 76; Nelson 87, Hamilton 80; DB Auckland 87, 2ZB Centrals 80. The points table:

P W L Pt Auckland 9 6 3 12 Canterburv 9 5 t 10 Saints 9 5 > 10 Hamilton 10 3 5 10 Nelson 8 5 3 10 Ponsonbv 9 4 5 8 Centrals 9 3 6 6 Napier 9 3 6 6 Canterbury report, page 24