It was nice to see a number of Harbour followers took advantage of our live stream link for the battle of the Rams with Virginia Commonwealth University Rams taking on Fordham University Rams in Atlantic 10 Conference play. Both teams of course featured a couple of former Harbour and Westlake Girls High alumni with Tera Reed a starter for VCU and Zara Jillings performing the same role for Fordham.

Fordham entered the contest with a 4-0 start in conference play compared with VCU’s 1-3 record. After a very tight first half a decisive 19-10 third period carried Fordham to a hard fought 64-54 road win.

For the thirteenth time in seventeen games Reed was in double figures – a perfect 8 from 8 from the foul line - as she produced 12 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.

Jillings, fresh from a career high 8 assists in the previous game, contributed 5 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists for Fordham. Waikato forward Kendell Heremaia, who played alongside Jillings and Reed in the 2016 Junior Tall Ferns came up with a game high 3 steals plus 6 points and 4 rebounds for Fordham

In another Harbour versus Harbour match up Brooke Blair’s 50^th game for the Idaho State Bengals, in which she scored 13 points, was spoilt by Northern Colorado Bears who gained the upper hand in the second half to win 63-57. The Bears of course have a couple of Kiwi’s in their lineup – former Harbour guard Tiarna Clarke scored 6 points (3/5FG) and Waikato’s Krystal Leger Walker came up with 4 rebounds and 2 steals.

24 hours earlier the Bears were beaten for the first time in Big Sky Conference play. Despite 12 points (5/10FG) fromClarke the Bears went down 82-73 to Weber State but still hold a 5-1 record.

Ella Fotu helped Hawaii Pacific Sharks to an eighth straight win downing Point Loma 70-48. Fotu had 9 points (4/8FG) and 3 rebounds. The Sharks sit second on the table in the PacWest Conference and face leaders Azusa later this week.

There was a second straight double-double for Katie Diakhaby as Northeastern Junior College proved too good for North Platte winning 79-46. Diakhaby recorded 18 points and 11 rebounds.

Also in junior College Georgia Perrott-Hunt posted 10 points and 5 rebounds for North Dakota State Wildcats in its 95-55 mauling of United Tribes.

Overall it was a quiet week for our men in college although it is worth noting that Jack Salt and Matt Freeman are performing in elite top ten ranked college programmes.

Salt, for the fifth straight game, recorded at least one block, as the high flying Virginia Cavaliers enhanced their national top three ranking with a 68-51 victory against North Carolina State.  

The reliable centre added two points and three rebounds to a single block as Virginia remain unbeaten (5-0) in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Not far behind in the rankings are number nine ranked Oklahoma Sooners. Playing in front of a sold out crowd of 11,500 the Sooners beat TCU 102-97 to improve to 4-1 in the Big 12 Conference. Freeman produced a solitary steal in 8 minutes off the bench for Oklahoma.

The Biola Eagles website described the rebounding performance of Alex Talma as “ferocious” in their 75-61 loss to traditional rivals Concordia. The former Westlake forward grabbed a game high 11 rebounds to go with a pair of points but the Eagles are still winless in PacWest Conference play.