Good luck to our former Harbour reps who will be attending the Tall Ferns Selection Camp that begins later this week at the Pulman Arena. 

Tayla Dalton, Penina Davidson, Ash Kelman-Poto and Akiene-Tera Reed are amongst the 18 players vying for selection for the 12-player team to compete at the FIBA Asia Cup in Sydney from 26 June.

Last weekend Penina posted a double-double of 11 points and 12 rebounds for Cairns Dolphins in their 90-75 NBLA1 North loss to Southern District Spartans.

Meanwhile in the Sal’s NBL Auckland Tuatara slipped to defeat going down 93-89 against Otago Nuggets at Eventfinda Stadium on Thursday night. Both Rob Loe and Charlie Dalton pulled down 10 rebounds apiece with Rob adding 14 points and Charlie 9 points.

Like Rob Loe, Dan Fotu recorded a double-double in a losing cause. Dan added 12 rebounds to 15 points as Otago Nuggets, the Sal’s NBL defending champions, completed a successful weekend in the City of Sails defeating the Franklin Bulls 91-72 on Saturday night. 

Liam Judd is enjoying a fine rookie NBL season with the Manawatu Jets. Despite fouling out in 18 minutes he scored 13 points as the Jets beat the Hawkes Bay Hawks 93-88.

Brayden Inger, after missing early season games due to injury, played a good hand for Southland Sharks in their 110-98 loss to Wellington Saints. Brayden finished with 15 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.

In Germany Yanni Wetzell scored 14 points as ALBA Berlin rounded out the Bundesliga regular season with an 83-72 win against Bayreuth. The win secured Berlin second spot on the regular season ahead of the quarter-finals.

Sam Waardenburg and his Ludwigsburg club are also through to the Bundesliga quarter-finals. Sam scored 4 points in a narrow 92-87 loss to Rostock in the final regular season game.

The quarter-finals have already begun in the German Second Division play-offs. Matt Freeman and Bremerhaven are locked at 1-1 against Tuebingen with Matt scoring 11 points in the 99-87 game two win.

Congratulations to former Harbour and Birkenhead College representative  Rashaan Smith who will continue her American collegiate career at Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Rashaan initially played at Dawson Community College and last season at Western Nebraska Community College.

As we posted on our Facebook page earlier in the week we are all delighted that Isaac Fotu and Bronwen Davidson were recognised at the Basketball New Zealand Awards ceremony last Saturday. The Awards recognised achievements in 2022 – the script, outlining the pair’s achievements is below:

Male Player of the Year Award – ISAAC FOTU

Isaac Fotu was a key player as his Japanese club win the Japan League championship in 2022 and also played three FIBA World Cup Qualifying games to help New Zealand secure a berth at the 2024 World Cup to be held in August.

Isaac played World Cup qualifiers against Japan, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Fittingly, he enjoyed his best performance against Japan scoring 24 points

Fotu is currently playing for the Brex Utsunomiya that play in the Japan-B1, the top league in the country. 

“After seven seasons playing in Europe I’m very excited about my move to Japan. I know basketball is becoming very popular in the country so I’m happy to be part of it,” Isaac said when announcing his move to Japan in the second half of 2021.His move from Italy brought almost instant success. Despite Brex only finishing seventh in the regular season they put together an impressive play-off campaign in 2022.

In best-of-three series they beat second seed Chiba 2-0 in the quarter-finals, saw off Kawasaki 2-0 in the semi’s and repeated the 2-0 margin in the Grand Final series against Ryukyu.

Isaac averaged 13,2 points and 6.1 rebounds per game across a gruelling 62 game season – one of only three Brex players not to miss a game!

CAROLYN GREY AWARD for Female Coach of the Year - Bronwen Davidson

In 2022 Bronwen Davidson’s Westlake Girls High School team produced a historic 30 wins and zero losses season. Westlake completed the treble winning the Auckland Premier Grade title, the Zone 1 National Qualifying Tournament and, for the first time in the school’s history, the ‘AA’ Secondary Schools National Championship.

Defeating St Andrew’s College, Christchurch in the National Championship Final, Westlake became the first Auckland team to win the Girl’s Championship since Northcote College were victorious in 2006. 

Bronwen honed her coaching skills on the home front developing the skills of her three children with eldest daughter Penina and son Isaac having gone on to play for the Tall Ferns and Tall Blacks respectively.

In 2023 Bronwen is again coaching the Westlake Girls Premier team and has also been appointed as an assistant coach to the New Zealand team that will compete at the Girl’s FIBA U15 Oceania Championship in Papua New Guinea later this year.