Big Shark Paringatai getting hungry for win

Southland Sharks big man James Paringatai has not won a basketball match for so long he's forgotten what it feels like to taste victory.

In last year's NBL with Taranaki, the 2m power forward experienced sporting purgatory – going through the whole 16-game season without a win.

Paringatai hoped a shift to new NBL franchise the Southland Sharks during the off-season would help snap the drought, but the losing has continued. With the Sharks dropping their first two matches of the season, to Hawkes' Bay (in overtime) and title favourites Harbour last weekend, Paringatai's losing run now stretches to 18 games. Crunch the numbers, and you have to go all the way back to June 7, 2008, to find Paringatai's last win in the NBL, when his Manawatu Jets side knocked over the Nelson Giants in their final regular-season game of the 2008 season.

During the past three years, Paringatai's teams have won only a staggering nine of 52 matches. When you're a competitive person like Paringatai is, that's hard to take. "It drags on and plays on your mind a bit," he told The Southland Times yesterday.

"It would have been good to get a win in our first game of the season."

Paringatai and the Sharks will be looking for their first win in the NBL tomorrow night when the side heads to Napier to take on Hawke's Bay. Southland pushed the Hawks all the way in their season opener, and Paringatai believed if the side could notch a win, it would generate a lot of confidence and get their season on track.

"Once we get that first win, it will all come from there.

"It's pretty much a must-win game for us."

Pettigrew Green Arena in Napier is regarded as one of the most difficult places in the league to get an away victory, but Paringatai said if they could quieten the crowd early and play like they did in the second half against Harbour at the weekend, they had the ability to win their first match in the league.

"It's a pretty hard place to go. It's one of the places you really like to get a win at – there and Nelson. We need to bring the intensity."

Southland will be bolstered for the clash with skipper and former Australian Boomer Luke Martin arriving in Invercargill last night after playing for the Wollongong Hawks in the grand final series of the Australian NBL, which finished up at the weekend. Paringatai said Martin's addition was a massive boost for the Sharks.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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