Saturday night looms as a basketball classic at the North Shore Events Centre as yet again Harbour Heat are involved in a top of the table clash in the Bartercard National Basketball League against the Waikato Pistons.

The Heat will be keen on the comforts of home too after dropping three of their last four games on the road, including the double header last weekend against the Saints and Cougars.

Not that Head Coach Judd Flavell is panicking, after all the Heat is still right in contention for the minor premiership title in second place with an 8 – 3 record.

“We were poor last week but that is behind us, at least in the sense of not brooding over a result that we cannot do anything about now. We have worked hard on the areas of our game that let us down, and all I shall is there were a few.

“I have talked all season about improving with each game and making sure we are at our best for the final quarter of the season and play offs if we are good enough to get that far. Saturday is a chance to return to our fans at the North Shore Events Centre, defend our unbeaten home record and get one back against another play off contender in Waikato.”

Flavell will have a full complement of players available although experienced forward Dillon Boucher is still hampered a little by a hamstring strain but is expected to play.

The match ups on court stack up as good as any Australian NBL game, with Gold Coast bound Rick Rickert going head to head with current Breaker Alex Pledger, Boucher the master up against the up and comer Thomas Abercrombie and another past and present clash with BJ Anthony playing against ANBL legend Tony Ronaldson.

Rickert in particular will be motivated to play well after being let go by the Breakers against a man who might well play plenty of Rickert’s minutes at centre next season in Pledger. Both have been in good form of late with Rickert averaging 18 points and close to 10 boards on the season while Pledger is looking for his fourth consecutive double double for the Pistons.

Harbour Heat (8-3) v Waikato Pistons (7-1)

Saturday 8^th May, 7pm

At North Shore Events Centre, North Shore

Referees – Dallas Pickering, Gavin Whiu, Jamie Hickey

Head to Head: Heat 1 Pistons 1

Last Meeting: Pistons 95-67 (Round Eight: 22/04/2010)

Leading Scorers (Points per game)

Heat                                       Pistons

Corey Webster (23.6)           Thomas Abercrombie (18.3)

Rick Rickert (18.2)                Hayden Allen (15.5)

Kavossy Franklin (17.5)       Tony Ronaldson (14.0)

Team Leaders in Other Categories (Per game)

Rebounds

Dillon Boucher (10.0)            Alex Pledger (13.6)

Assists

Dillon Boucher (5.3)              Thomas Abercrombie (2.8)

Steals

Corey Webster (3.3)             Thomas Abercrombie (1.9)

Blocks

Rick Rickert (1.0)                  Alex Pledger (2.3)