Despite the wet, cold conditions, the Te Awamutu Events Centre (brought to you by the Waipa District Council) was jam-packed, with all spectators looking forward to some exciting semi finals basketball from their beloved Waikato Pistons, against the southern invaders, the Nelson Giants.

The start to the game was interesting, after all the Pistons came onto the court in a blaze of giant sparklers, which you would never think to be a good idea indoors (fire bylaws and all) but nonetheless it got the crowd excited and left a nice pall of smoke hanging in the air for at least the first half, even obscuring the sign announcing that the event was proudly supported by the Waipa District Council. 

The Pistons took the early lead thanks to some accurate shooting by Crowe (a good NZ sporting name if ever there was) despite the fact that he was an American import - then Pero Cameron came on, and it all went to custard.  Nelson took advantage of the unique tactic of passing the ball to the unmarked man standing under the hoop – Waikato’s “zone defence” doing a very good job of marking the zone but not the man. That combined with Nelson’s more aggressive work in the paint led to the Pistons getting into foul trouble, in particular one Honik (played for the Tall Blacks at one stage apparently – I could only say they must have been quite desperate at the time) who seemed to spend most of his time on court gesticulating to the ref as to why he was innocent.  Thus the fist ¼ came to a close and it was Nelson leading 22 -20.

Main take-outs from the first ¼: what the cheerleaders lacked for in age they made for with enthusiasm and that the coach of the Pistons would never make it in the NBA as he didn’t spend enough time running up and down the sideline yelling at the referees.  It was also becoming increasingly obvious that the wooden bench seating wasn’t the most comfortable, despite the outstanding Waipa District Council facilities…

The second ¼ didn’t begin with the fireworks of the first ¼ (quite thankfully really, the smoke from the sparklers used in the first ¼ when the Pistons ran out was still hanging around) but the basketball was of a high standard from both sides, with plenty of baskets being scored by both teams.  It was good; it wasn’t one of those games where they slowly amble the ball down the court, fluff around for 20 seconds, put up a lame shot that misses; hand over to the opposition to then amble the ball back down the court, pass the ball aimlessly around, throw up a shot in desperation, miss, hand back to the other team to amble the ball down the court, put up a shot, miss, etc etc … No it was rather high-quality basketball, slightly better from Nelson, and they took a 47 – 40 lead into halftime.

The main consensus at half-time was that the wooden seating was, really, really uncomfortable and Mokey’s friend Terrena was getting sick of the cheerleaders who seemed to want to be on the court more than the basketballers (but not the refs, one of them was going hard trying to get his face on camera whenever and wherever possible).  Luckily the civilised folk of the Waipa District didn’t take to him with pitchforks and run him out of town – or at least the events centre – proudly sponsored by the Waipa District Council.