Harbour Breeze off to a strong start in 2014
The Harbour Breeze embarked on its quest to win the 2014 National Womens Basketball Championship last weekend. The first of the three tournaments to decide the WBC was held in Christchurch.
The four times championship winning Breeze started the tournament well, easing to a comfortable 75-36 win against the Rotorua Vols on Friday evening. Coach Jody Cameron was able to give all her players decent court time, Deena Franklin (26pts), Tera Reed (15pts) and debutant Morgan Roberts (10pts) the leading scorers.
The Breeze made a quick start in the second game early on Saturday jumping out to a 21-12 first quarter lead against the Waikato Wizards.
The team lost their way a little in the middle part of the game and trailed 38-45 at three-quarter time but recovered to storm home in the final quarter on the back of a dominant performance by their forwards, winning 58-54.
Shooting percentages were poor from both teams, the Breeze shooting a lowly 29% from the field – 0 from 9 from three-point land!
However the forwards dominated, winning the rebound battle 61-38, Deena Franklin (18pts/11rebs), Beks van Kuyk (9pts/11rebs) and Karlene Kingi (9pts/11rebs) the standouts.
Game two on Saturday started well against hosts Canterbury Wildcats, the Breeze holding a slight edge 13-12 at quarter time.
The scores remained close and when Morgan Roberts (13pts) sunk a triple with 3:57 to go in the third period the Harbour women trailed by just three points 33-36.
The Breeze then succumbed to an 18-0 blitz from the hosts, failing to score for over six minutes and eventually losing 60-46 giving up 23 turnovers in the process.
In the fourth game on Sunday the Breeze hit the front against the previously unbeaten Auckland/Counties Hawks in the third minute of the game and were never headed thereafter. The Breeze led 16-13 at quarter time and 32-23 at the main interval.
They extended their lead further in the second half cruising to a comfortable 63-47 win, Tera Reed leading the Harbour scoring with 16 points.
Their 3-1 record sees them sitting at the top of the standings level with Waikato.
Standings:
3-1 Harbour Breeze, Waikato Wizards
2-1 Canterbury Wizards, Auckland /Counties Hawks, Otago Gold Rush
2-2 Capital Flyers
1-2 Waitakere Lady Rangers
1-3 Nelson Sparks
0-4 Rotorua Vols
Story By: Mike Lacey
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