We begin our weekly senior players roundup with the international game.

The Tall Ferns four game tour of Australia, playing against WNBL teams, began on Saturday with a 77-63 loss to Southside Flyers.  

Congratulations to Olivia Berry who made her international debut while Micaela Cocks top scored with 22 points. She also added to her record number of appearances in the black singlet – currently 143.

The inexperienced Tall Ferns – with six debutants amongst the 11 strong playing squad - will play against the Melbourne Boomers (including Penina Davidson) and the Bendigo Spirit again next weekend. 

At the Schick 3x3 Cup in Invercargill Northern Kāhu (Azure Anderson, Yume Negishi, Casyn Buchman, Chev Paalvast) went all the way to the Grand Final where they were defeated by Mainland Pouakai. 

Former Harbour standout Ella Fotu was a member of the winning Pouakai team and rightly named Tournament MVP.

Harbour Breeze featuring the all Westlake Girls High quartet of Izzy Pugh, Mackenzie Chatfield, Rebecca Moors and Amy Pateman went down 21-15 to Hoiho in the Round of 16. The youngest team at the Schick Cup eventually finished a creditable 11^th.

Auckland Tuatara, with four current or former Harbour reps (Chris McIntosh, Tom Beattie, Liam Judd, Reuben Fitzgerald) defeated United 21-10 in the Round of 16 then went down 21-16 to the Canterbury Rams but bounced back to defeat Whai for a 5^th place finish.

Franklin Bulls (Jett Thompson, Josh Leger, Christian Martin, Jayden Bezzant) lost 22-11 to the Manawatu Jets in the Round of 16 and would eventually finish 14th. 

The four Auckland based teams have no fewer than 12 current or former Harbour players amongst the 16 selected individuals.

Amongst our former players in the pros Rob Loe, for the third week running, was again in fine form as the Sky Sport Breakers gained a notable 85-77 win at South East Melbourne Phoenix.

Rob scored a season high 18 points (7/11FG, 3/5 3PG) including a personal 9-0 run in the fourth quarter to take the game away from SEM. He followed that with 10 points and 8 rebounds as the Breakers thumped Illawarra Hawks 88-62 on Monday night.

Also with a season high was Sam Waardenburg who  scored 13 points as Cairns Taipans registered an impressive 83-78 road win against defending champions the Sydney Kings.

Over in Perth Corey Webster registered a dozen points but the Wildcats were undone 84-81 by Melbourne United. 

Beginning the Japanese League season with six away games Isaac Fotu and Tochigi Brex dropped their opening three games but are now on a three game win streak after defeating Sendai 89ers twice over the weekend.

Playing a shade under 30 minutes a game the Tall Blacks forward is averaging 12.3 points and 5.8 rebounds per game – second on the team in both categories.

Tai Webster has averaged 10.5 points and a brace of assists as Socar Petkimspor have opened the Turkish League with a win and a loss.

Yanni Wetzell  scored 10 points (4/6DFG) in just 15 minutes as ALBA Berlin won 80-74 on the road at Milan in Euroleague action on Friday night. The former Westlake and Harbour forward also snared 3 steals and 3 rebounds.

In the German Pro-A League Matt Freeman scored 14 points for Eisbaeren Bremerhaven but it was a tough game for the hosts thumped 112-78 by Dusseldorf.

Tall Fern Tera Reed followed her 27 points haul last week with 23 points at the weekend but Tampereen Pyrintö slipped to 1-3 in the Finnish League after going down 79-73 to Honka. – all three defeats by six points or less. Reed leads the team in points (19ppg) and rebounds (11.0rpg).