Had the visiting Southern Huskies thought they had made ground on Canterbury Rams, the Tasmanians found out the distance was further apart now than ever before.
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While an 11-point defeat two nights earlier in Hobart was trimmed to just two in Launceston last Saturday, the Rams blew the margin out to 97-67 in Christchurch on Friday night.
The Huskies' heavy loss - the largest in their 13 games of the club's inaugural New Zealand NBL season - is a setback to their fading hopes of making the last four.
Missing captain Craig Moller with the NBL team in China, the Huskies got off to a sluggish start to trail 23-16 at quarter-time after being down by 12 points earlier.
The visitors got it back to within five points before the Rams went on a rampage. The third-placed side scored 28 of the next 32 points to lead 53-24 at the break. The Tasmanians won the last two terms narrowly, but the game was as good as buried.
Forward Jalen Billups was below his 22.1 average game, but the American still scored a team-high 17 points. Marcel Jones with 14 points and jordan Vandenberg with 11 were the only teammates to also reach double figures.