Pistons' power play

DONNA WALSH/Waikato Times

HIGH FLYER: Waikato Pistons star Thomas Abercrombie dunks during his side's 104-74 thrashing of the Christchurch Cougars in Te Awamutu last night.

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The Waikato Pistons played schoolyard bully last night over the Christchurch Cougars – with some justification.

The hosts romped to a 104-74 win at the Te Awamutu Events Centre to maintain their perfect start to the National Basketball League season.

Without tall centre Tim Behrendorff, the visitors were terribly undersized and Pistons coach Dean Vickerman wasn't going to look a gift shetland pony in the mouth.

The two-times defending NBL champs pounded the ball inside to lofty centre Alex Pledger and power forward Tony Ronaldson and reaped significant rewards.

Pledger finished with 16 points and as many rebounds in his 26 minutes on court and Ronaldson had 20 of his game-high 28 points in the second half as the Cougars were unable to match up with Waikato's size.

"Without Tim, that was always going to be the plan," Vickerman said.

"He's a big loss for them and we had to take advantage of it.

"Bear [Ronaldson] and Alex did the job very effectively."

The visitors were never in the contest after the first five minutes saw them give up five fouls trying to stop the Pistons dominating the offensive paint while managing just two points as Thomas Abercrombie did a shut-down job on chief Christchurch scoring threat Paora Winitana.

The Pistons led 27-10 at quarter-time and stretched the advantage to 51-30 at halftime despite a slack period before the major break.

After Pledger dominated around the basket in the first spell, Ronaldson used his strength to post-up from close range in the third quarter while Christchurch could only stop a rout with some sharp three-point shooting from Lionel Hopgood.

Abercrombie had another efficient night with 19 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks while star point guard Eric Devendorf quietly went about contributing 21 points and nine assists to help the Pistons to a 3-0 record from three home matches.

Not surprisingly, the hosts also won the rebound count handsomely, hauling in 54 boards to Christchurch's 35.

"The rebounding had been really good for us so far this season," Vickerman said.

Vickerman said his new-look side, which contained just one starter from the line-up that met the Cougars in last season's semifinal (Abercrombie), was still working towards being a more cohesive unit.

"Our first two weeks we really only ran two offensive plays," Vickerman said.

"Now Eric's learning when to take over and when to hand the ball off and Gerard Bowden is fitting in and showing much more improvement as he gets to grip with our game."

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