Seven Kiwis are headed to the Men’s NCAA National Championships beginning later this week with no fewer than four of them are former Harbour players.

Dan Fotu (St Mary’s, California), Sam Mennenga (Davidson College), James Moors (Colorado State) and Sam Waardenburg (Miami) are all off to the Big Dance.

For long periods of the Atlantic 10 Tournament Final on Sunday it appeared that Davidson College would be the victors gaining Sam a championship medal. Davidson were eventually pipped 64-62 by Richmond despite an outstanding display from Sam.

He scored a team high 18 points making 5 from 8 field goals including all 4 of his three-point attempts, plus 4 from 4 from the foul line. 

Also over the weekend Miami University, having caused one of the upsets of the season when they defeated Number 1 ranked Duke in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) regular season play couldn’t quite repeat the feat at the ACC semi-finals beaten 80-76 by the Blue Devils. Sam Waardenburg was once again in fine form with 8 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds and a couple of blocks in the defeat.

A shout out also to Yuat Alok – Yuat is a former Rangitoto College player and a member of the New Mexico State University Aggies that were crowned Western Athletic Conference Champions and therefore also headed to the NCAA Tournament.

National Invitation Tournament (NIT)

The next best thing to the NCAA Tournament is an invitation to the NIT. Again there will be strong Harbour representation with Taine Murray (Virginia), Emme Shearer (Portland) and Jessica Moors (Colorado State) all competing.

NCAA Division II National Championships

Dallas Baptist University returned to the NCAA Division II National Championships for the fifth straight year but had to take on Black Hills State without centre William Heather. The former Rosmini College National Championship winner has had to undergo surgery for a  lingering back injury. DBU struggled without their influential big man and were defeated 76-68.

Harbour guard Hannah Wentworth was New Zealand’s sole representative at the Women’s NCAA Division II National Championships but she and her Eckerd College teammates couldn’t repeat the heroics of their first round victory against Florida Southern. Wentworth made 4 from 5 from deep on her way to 15 points in that one and followed that with 9 points in the  73-48 second round loss to Union University.

Junior College.

The Junior College National Championships will begin later this week. Good luck to Rashaan Smith and her Western Nebraska team that will play Murray State in the first round on Thursday.