Harbour Heat retained the Brent Fair trophy with a hard fought 92 – 83 win over the Taranaki Mountain Airs in New Plymouth last night, a victory that keeps the North Shore based side on top of the Bartercard National Basketball League standings.

For the Heat it was an important result for a number of reasons, first of which was to return home with the Brent Fair Memorial Trophy but also to restore confidence after the heavy loss against the Pistons on Thursday night.

Dillon Boucher returned after missing the Pistons game with his usual all court game to post 11 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists while Rick Rickert and Corey Webster led Heat scorers with 20 points apiece.

Harbour Heat has bounced back from their hiding on Thursday to beat the Taranaki Mountain Airs 92-83.

Airs Jack Leasure had a game high 28 and Aaron Bailey Nowell chipped in with 17.

Heat dominated the boards out rebounding the home side 43-26 and also forced Jeremiah Trueman and Demarshay Johnson to play limited minutes because of foul trouble.

The game was not an easy one for the Heat with the scores level at the half and then the Heat only holding a three point advantage at the third.

In the fourth the Heat went on a 10-0 run giving them a 13 point lead with five minutes left. The Airs would not be able to comeback, Heat shooting 17 free throws in the final quarter.

The game was won and lost in the paint, both on the boards and in the scoring stakes, with the Heat hitting just one three pointer in the entire game.

The win puts the Heat back to the top of the table with eight wins and one loss and sees the Brent Fair Memorial trophy make the journey back to the North Shore Events Centre.  The trophy is in memory of popular American coach Brent Fair who passed away on Waitangi Day in 1997 of an enlarged heart at the age of just 37. In his time in New Zealand Fair coached both North Harbour and New Plymouth before heading back to the States to coach at College and High School level on the West Coast.

Brent Fair coached the Poenamo Vikings as they were known in 1993, a team that included a very fresh faced Sean Marks at just 17 years of age but already 2.07m tall and a player going places quickly.

He also coached the New Plymouth side in 1988 with import Jacques Tuz. Many thought New Plymouth would have won the league that year but for the late season injury to Tuz. Perhaps one of the best moments for Fair as coach was the game against the Saints late in that season when a Kenny McFadden and Kerry Boagni led Saints came to town full of confidence against an ‘importless’ New Plymouth, minus also a number of Kiwi players who had withdrawn during the week. New Plymouth won by 8 with a flurry of last minute points to set the YMCA alight that night with Fair in charge.

Brent Fair Bio

Born 21 August 1959

Died 6 February 1997 NZ Waitangi Day age 37 (of an enlarged heart)

Coached:

Crystal Palace U20 (England)

New Plymouth 1988

Golden West College Huntington Beach California 1988-89

(Assistant Coach Brent Fair)

North Harbour (Poenamo Vikings) 1993

Fullerton Indians High School, California 1994-95

Pacifica High School, California 1995-96

Taranaki Mountain Airs 83
Harbour Heat 92

Referees - Melony Wealleans, Miguel Gallardo, Kieran Udy
1Q: 21-24
HT: 47-47 (26-23)
3Q: 66-69 (19-22)
FT: 83-92 (17-23)

Box Score attached