Harbour A Men and Harbour Women both cemented their spots in Tuesday’s Grand-Finals at the AON Under 19 National Championships being played in Dunedin.

These games can be watched live on Basketball New Zealand's Facebook page. The Harbour women play their final at 3pm and the men's final commences at 4.45pm.

The Men’s Final will be an all City of Sails affair with Harbour taking on Auckland while the Women’s Final will be a repeat of the 2018 championship game with Waikato set to meet North Harbour.

With the scores tied 69 points apiece at three-quarter time it looked as if the Waitaha Canterbury versus Harbour Men’s semi-final would go down to the wire. 

However the defending champions were blown away in the final period outscored 31-9 with  Harbour’s Junior Tall Black Sam Mennenga unleashing a 15 points assault in the last ten minutes.

Taine Murray nailed 23 points, Marvin Williams-Dunn slotted in 14 while Harry Payne and Sean Murphy scored 10 points each.

Canterbury dominated the early proceedings thanks to the efforts of Thomas Wesley (35 points) and led by six points at quarter time. Harbour tied the scores by half-time (47-47), a half in which remarkably Canterbury were only called for one foul. 

The two teams shared 44 points in the third period before the Mennenga led fourth quarter onslaught.

Old foes Harbour and Waikato will meet in the Women’s Final after successfully negotiating their semi-finals. The two teams have contested two of the last three championship games and four of the previous nine. 

Harbour, after leading by five-points (32-27) at half-time, pulled clear in the third frame outscoring Taranaki 26-12 with Jordyn Maddix (12pts) and Hannah Wentworth (11pts) both making triples. Emme Shearer put up 18 points and 9 rebounds, Rashaan Smith scored 13 points and Jess Moors 10.

Harbour B Men found the going tough on day three beaten 123-86 by Auckland in the quarter-finals and then going down 90-69 against Otago in the 5-8 placing bracket. They will play Manawatu for 7th and 8th place.

Dallas Clayton had a fine double leading the scoring against Otago with 21 points, while also topping the scoring against Auckland alongside Reimar Cruz – the pair scored 23 points apiece. Captain Josh Kooiman notched double figures in both games with 19 against Otago and 11 against Auckland.

Harbour Basketball would like to thank Basketball Otago for the outstanding job that Justin Ludlow and his team have done in hosting the AON Under 19 Nationals in 2019.