College Sport Finals
Led by a player of the match performance from inspirational captain Moengaroa Subritzky, AGGS scored an emphatic and breakthrough 81-68 win over MAGS in the premier girl's final at the North Shore Events Centre.
Subritzky, last year won regional and national SS honours while at Church College. She and ex-Church College, now AGGS, teammate Megan Aben have the chance to win back-to-back New Zealand titles with different schools when they head to Palmerston North for the September 27-October 1 championships.
This year's premier title race was a three-way affair with AGGS, MAGS and Rangitoto all in the mix through the 14 rounds of the regular season with MAGS eventually taking the minor premiership.
AGGS won through to Friday's final with a two-point semifinal win over Rangitoto.
MAGS quickly silenced the vocal AGGS crowd, racing to an early seven-point lead before AGGS fought back to tie it up 17-17 at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter was all AGGSwho led by 20 heading into the third quarter.
Down but far from out, MAGS closed to within five thanks mainly to the accuracy of three-point shooter Courtney Powell-Poto.
In the end AGGS dominated the final quarter to claim their first premier title.
In celebrating, they could look back on a four-year development programme which started when core team members Caitlin Tuala, Subritzky, Tyla Tariau and Lillian Ioane won the 2007 Greater Auckland under-15 championship.
Friday also gave the top age group basketball teams the chance to become the Greater Auckland champions.
The intense afternoon programme began with the under-15 contest between Avondale College and MAGS in the girl's final and WBHS meeting AGS in the boys. The same two schools met in all age group finals.
At the same time as AGS were fighting back to edge WBHS in the under-15 boy's final, MAGS had a similar see-saw battle for the under-15 girl's title against Avondale.
Neither team were able to take a commanding lead as the score bounced back and forth.
Captain Lyric Taurua-Wolfgramm had the hot hand for MAGS with a game high 23 points, while Anjelica Matapo was the leading scorer for Avondale with 17. MAGS held on to win 41-38.
The under-17 boy's final was another keenly-anticipated WBHS-AGS match-up.
WBHS took a slim 23-21 halftime lead but they stepped up a gear in the third quarter to race to a 12-goal lead on the back of some sharp-shooting from Ana Haku. WBHS continued their domination to clear out and win 55-34.
Led by a strong game from captain Ella Fotu, Rangitoto raced out to an early 12-5 first quarter lead over Avondale in the under-17 girl's final.
Avondale quickly regrouped to rein in Rangitoto and take an 18-16 halftime lead. Avondale hung on to win 28-27.
Dominant performances by Manurewa High School and WBHS earned them open grade honours.
Northcote were no match for Manurewa in the girl's final.They struggled as the South Aucklanders used their superior height to make the most of their rebound opportunities. Led by Charlotte Davis' impressive three-point shooting Manurewa cruised home 49-14.
In the boy's final Westlake raced out to an early 20-7 lead. AGS were never in it after that as Callum Welch led from the front for Westlake, leading all scorers with 12 points. WBHS dominated all four quarters en route to their 65-24 victory.
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