It has been a highly successful last few days for New Zealand basketball with five Kiwis playing in NCAA Division 1 conference championship games claiming titles, two of them former Harbour players Jack Salt and Tiarna Clarke. This also means the pair will be suiting up with their teams at ‘The Big Dance’ - the NCAA Tournament beginning later this week.

The NJCAA (Junior College) Women’s National Championship also begins later this week and Georgia Perrott-Hunt and Olivia Bell will be flying the Harbour flag at that event.

Jack’s Virginia Cavaliers had already won the regular season title and on Sunday added the Atlantic Coast Tournament Championship to their trophy cabinet with a 73-61 win against North Carolina.

The former Westlake big man’s return of 4 points (from his only two shots) and 2 rebounds in 22 minutes of action doesn’t appear overly significant but his screen setting, boxing out, running of the floor and high basketball IQ are much appreciated by Virginia head coach Tony Bennett.

"He's unbelievable. He was named a captain this year as a third-year, which we usually don't do eligibility-wise. So he's just all heart, and he'll do whatever you ask. That's the way he was raised. And that's how it is probably in New Zealand, right? You just fight and you don't back down," Bennett said.

Tiarna is having an outstanding time in her freshman season with the Northern Colorado Bears.

She and Krystal Leger-Walker were key players as the Bears added the Big Sky Tournament trophy to the regular season championship with a convincing 91-69 win against Idaho on Sunday.

The former Westlake guard scored 9 points, converting 3 from 5 three-points shots. It was a thirteenth straight win for NCU who are now heading to the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

The Bears beat Brooke Blair and Idaho State Bengals in the semi-final on Saturday. The senior guard, in probably her last game for the Bengals, had 5 points, 3 rebounds and 2 steals on the night.

There was some consolation for Brooke as she received Big Sky All-Conference Second Team recognition. The former Harbour and Rangitoto College representative has averaged 15.4 points per game for the Bengals.

As mentioned above Olivia Bell and Georgia Perrott-Hunt are off to the 24-team NJCAA (Junior College) Women’s National Championship in Texas starting March 19.

Olivia and Georgia were prominent as North Dakota State beat Highlands Community College-Illinois 71-62 in the District Championship final. Olivia scored 15 points (5/11FG, 5/6FT) and Georgia contributed 4 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists.

Sam Waardenburg and the Miami Hurricanes were also involved in the ACC Tournament but were eliminated in the quarter-finals by North Carolina (82-65). Sam finished with 2 points (1/2FG), 3 rebounds and 3 assists against the 2017 NCAA tournament champions. Miami have however received an invitation to the NCAA tournament as have Matt Freeman and the Oklahoma Sooners.

So three Kiwi men are heading to the Big Dance and all three have come up through the Harbour representative programme.

The season came to an abrupt end for Ella Fotu and Hawaii Pacific Sharks on Saturday. The PacWest Conference champions were surprisingly beaten 76-65 by Montana State Billings in the NCAA Division II West region quarter-finals. Ella scored 8 points (4/7FG) and added a couple of rebounds, a steal and a block.

The Sharks have had a highly successful season posting a 24-6 school record campaign that included a 19 game winning streak.

Congratulations to Katie Diakhaby being named to the Region IX All-Regional team after averaging 17.8 points and 11.2 rebounds per game for Northeastern junior College.

Northeastern finished their season with a 67-62 loss to Lamar Community College in play-off action. Diakhaby signed off her junior college career in emphatic style – 18 points, 18 rebounds and 4 blocks!