Harbour players at Asian and World Championships.
We again begin this week’s roundup in Doha, Qatar where Julius Halaifonua and the New Zealand U17 Men’s National Team claimed bronze at FIBA Asia Cup and in doing so qualified for the 2022 FIBA U17 World Championship in Spain next month.
Julius scored 10 points on Sunday night as NZ completed a decisive 89-62 victory in the 3rd/4th play-off game against Lebanon.
The performance capped a fantastic tournament for Julius who was second on the team in points scoring (12.8ppg), rebounding (9.5rpg) and blocks (1.0bpg). He also led the team in scoring efficiency with a field goal percentage of 70% (33 from 47).
Overall, amongst the 13 competing teams he had the 14th highest scoring average, 7th highest rebounding count.
The U17 Women’s National Team will be hoping to emulate their male counterparts and secure a World Cup place when they head to the FIBA Asia Championship in Jordan this week. Harbour’s Amy Pateman and the rest of the squad depart Auckland on Tuesday.
As with the Men’s Asia Champs the tournament doubles as a World Cup qualifying event with the top four teams in Jordan securing places at the U17 Women’s FIBA World Cup to be played in Spain in July.
Best of luck to Tiarna Clarke, Tayla Dalton and Ella Fotu competing at the FIBA 3x3 World Cup in Antwerp Belgium this week (June 21-26).
At the World Cup New Zealand have been placed in the same Pool as powerhouse United States as well as France, Austria and Brazil. Rangitoto College Girls Prems Coach, Justine Reed is Head Coach of the New Zealand Team.
Rangitoto College, alumni Olivia Berry will play for Northern Kāhu in the upcoming Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa season. Olivia joins other former Harbour reps, Micaela Cocks, Ash Kelman-Poto, Jazz Kailahi-Fulu, Jaycin Tini and Akiene-Tera Reed as former Harbour players in the Kāhu lineup.
Kāhu played the Tauranga based franchise Whai in two pre-season games at the weekend winning an entertaining contest at AUT on Saturday 81-74 before going down by a similar margin in Te Aroha on Sunday.
The Kāhu play their first Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa home game, against Tokomanawa Queens at Franklin Pool & Leisure Centre on Monday July 4. All other home games will be played at Eventfinda Stadium.
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