Micaela Cocks and Zach Riley had rather busy Queens Birthday weekends.

Zach was a standout with 18 points ,on 7 from 9 shooting  from the field, and added 5 assists as the Auckland Huskies beat Taranaki Mountain Airs 106-84 in the Sal’s NBL on Friday night.

From New Plymouth it was across to Napier for a game against Hawkes Bay on Sunday where he had 15 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals in an 80-75 loss at Hawkes Bay. Zach played 36 minutes and 51 seconds in ths game; the most of any Huskies player.

Zach jumped on a flight back to Auckland that night in order to suit up in the play-offs at the U19 National Champs at Eventfinda Stadium.

In a quarter-final tie on Monday morning he scored 22 points in a 98-77 win against Waikato.

Time for some quick rest and recovery before facing Canterbury in the semi-finals on Monday afternoon where, despite leading the Harbour scoring with 25 points, he was on the losing side as Harbour went down 95-90.

On Tuesday morning it was back on court in the bronze medal game against Otago. Harbour secured an 86-77 win with Zack tallying 24 points to pass the 100 points mark over the five games.

Back to the NBL and the top three scorers for Franklin Bulls in their home tie with Hawkes Bay Hawks were all Harbour players. Denhym Brooke scored 17 points as a severely undermanned Bulls were beaten 110-73 by Hawkes Bay Hawks. In addition both Dylan Wilkie (11 points) and Jett Thompson (12 points) amassed career high’s.

Jonathan Janssen had a fine game for the Hawks amassing 18 points and 8 rebounds.  

Brayden Inger was a major contributor as Southland Sharks inflicted a first loss of the season on the Wellington Saints winning 84-70. Inger scored 14 points (6/8FG) for the Orange Men then followed that with 22 points in an 85-78 defeat of the Otago Nuggets.

In Australia:

Micaela Cocks and Townsville Flames had a massive road trip at the weekend playing three games in as many days.

Micaela scored 14 points but Townsville Fire suffered its first NBL1 loss of the season going down 76-58 at top of the table Logan Thunder on Friday.

The Fire bounced back in style defeating Ipswich Force 98-68. Micaela put up a double-double in this one registering 18 points and 13 rebounds.

Then it was 16 points against Gold Coast Rollers in an 89-69 win on Sunday. With a 5-1 record the Fire sit second on the Northern Conference league table.

Brisbane Capitals improved to 3-2 with an 88-72 win against cross town rivals South West Metro Pirates. Brooke Blair scored 12 points for the Capitals.