Harbour Breeze split their Women’s Basketball Championship (WBC) road trip at the weekend with a win against Taranaki Thunder on Sunday after suffering a loss to Waikato Country Cannons on Saturday.

The 90-69 win at Taranaki was built around a dominating performance from Penina Davidson, who recorded 34 points, 13 rebounds and 6 steals.

The Breeze took control of the game in the second period when they out scored their hosts 30-9 to carry a 53-32 lead into the half-time break.

During that quarter Brooke Blair made four triples (finishing the game with 6 from 10 attempts) and Tayla Dalton added two (4 from 6 in the game) to take the game away from Taranaki.

Davidson, recently returned from her four year stint at University of California Berkeley, scored ten of her 34 points (12/17FG) in the third period to help the Breeze maintain a 19 points advantage (71-52) at the conclusion of the quarter. Her thirty-four points was the highest individual score in the round of games played at the weekend.

Jazz Kailahi-Fulu, like Tayla named in the New Zealand team to attend the FIBA U17 World Cup in Belarus next month came close to a double-double finishing with 9 points and 10 rebounds.

Taranaki Thunder 69 – L Laborn 16, V Weir 12, I Cook 8, C O’Connell 7

Harbour Breeze 90 – P Davidson 34p/9r/6st, T Dalton 21p/4a, B Blair 18, J Kailahi-Fulu 9, A Lacey, W Ah-Hing 4, K Diakhaby 2, O Berry 2

On Saturday the Breeze lost 82-72 to Waikato Country Cannons in Te Awamutu with Cannons guard Bailey Ross-Waitai scoring a game high 29 points (5/11 3PG).

In a close encounter the Breeze led at every major interval including 59-58 at three-quarter time.

Tayla Dalton (18 points) put Harbour ahead 61-58 with the first score of the final period only for the Cannons to reel off a 13-2 run over the next five minutes.

Brooke Blair (16 points) broke the Cannons run and Katie Diakhaby dragged the Breeze to within five points (72-67) with four minutes to play but that was as close as it got for the visitors.

Power Chill Waikato Country Cannons 82 – B Ross-Waitai 29 A Parai 16, D Fermanis 15

Harbour Breeze 72 – T Dalton 18, B Blair 16, A Lacey 9, P Davidson 7p/13r, K Tini 6, K Diakhaby 5, T Jenkins 4, J Kailahi-Fulu 4, W Ah-Hing 2, O Bell 1

The Breeze sit sixth on the WBC ladder (2-5) with one more regular season game remaining before the concluding play-off tournament in Dunedin (July 5-7).

The final regular season game is a home encounter against Tauranga City Coasters to be played at AUT Sports Centre, Akoranga Drive, on Saturday June 23^rd, tip-off 1.00pm.

WBC Standings

5-1 Waikato Wizards

4-2 Power Chill Waikato Country Cannons, Auckland Dream

3-2 Alloyfold Canterbury Wildcats, Otago Gold Rush

2-4 Harbour Breeze

1-3 Taranaki Thunder

0-6 Tauranga City Coasters