Former Rangitoto College school mates Olivia Berry and Penina Davidson were on opposing sides as the Tall Ferns took on the Melbourne Boomers on Saturday. 

The Tall Ferns four game tour of Australia, playing against WNBL teams, wound up with an 85-62 loss against the Boomers.

Congratulations to Olivia on scoring her first points in the black singlet while Micaela Cocks stretched her record number of appearances for the Tall Ferns to 145.

Penina was unavailable for the Tall Ferns due to her Boomers commitments – the WNBL season begins in four weeks’ time.

Another pair of ex-Harbour and Rangitoto teammates were in opposition in Cairns on Sunday. It was Dan Fotu with the smiles as the Sky Sport Breakers beat Sam Waardenburg’s Cairns Taipans in a low scoring contest 68-64, the win taking the Breakers to second on the NBL ladder. 

Earlier in the week fellow Breaker Rob Loe brought up 600 career NBL rebounds with 8 boards against South East Melbourne Phoenix while Sam Waardenburg (pictured) scored 13 points as the Taipans registered an impressive 83-78 road win against defending champions the Sydney Kings.

Further afield Isaac Fotu scored 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting but Tochigi Brex had their three-game winning streak ended as they dropped their Japanese League double-header at Alvark Tokyo 77-75 and 60-57. Isaac had 13 points and 7 rebounds in the second loss.

Tai Webster produced 14 points and 5 assists as Socar Petkimspor defeated Darussafaka 94-75 and improve to 2-2 in the Turkish League.

Brother Corey Webster scored 9 points for Perth but the Wildcats were trounced 103-72 in Tasmania in the Australian NBL.

Another former Harbour and Westlake player Yanni Wetzell enjoyed a couple of successful midweek outings for ALBA Berlin.

ALBA won a German Cup Round of 16 tie 98-95 against Bonn. Yanni scored a season high 23 points (9/10FG, 5/7FT) for Berlin while Finn Delany notched 12 points for Bonn. Yanni tied the contest in the closing minute after Bonn had led 93-91. He added two free throws with 20 seconds remaining as the reigning champions advanced to the quarter-finals. 48 hours later he scored 11 points as Berlin thumped Greek side Panathinaikos 94-65 in a EuroLeague fixture.

Also in Germany Matt Freeman scored 13 points, making 3 from 5 from deep, as Bremerhaven won a thriller on the road against Jena 71-69. The victory improves Bremerhaven to 2-2 on the Pro A League ladder.

Tall Fern Tera Reed registered her third double-double in five games as Tampereen Pyrintö secured an exciting 73-72 Finnish League victory at Vimpelin Veto. Tera finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds as Pyrintö improved to 3-2 for the season.

The American collegiate season is about to get underway and we will be keeping an eye on the action through Harbour lenses. No fewer than 24 Harbour representative players are on basketball scholarships in the USA right now.