Rob Loe has made the news in the past week announcing his retirement from both the Tall Blacks and the New Zealand Breakers.

I first saw Rob play as a 10 year-old for Hauraki Primary School and have followed his career closely through Westlake Boys High, Harbour rep teams, the Breakers Academy, St Louis University, professional contracts in Greece, Belgium and Australia and finally back to the North Shore to link up with the Breakers and most recently the Auckland Tuatara.

For the past 14 years he has been a stalwart of the Tall Blacks playing 90 games, appearing at the 2014 and 2019 FIBA World Cups and claiming a bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. His contributions to the game in New Zealand have been immense

Back to the court and Rob was his usual dominant self as Auckland Tuatara won the Auckland derby in the Sals NBL defeating the Franklin Bulls 100-87. Rob stuffed the stats line with 30 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 blocks and a steal.

In a game where Kruz Perrott-Hunt was making his professional debut, after graduating from the University of South Dakota, there were no fewer than eight past or present Harbour rep players on show. 

The Bulls had Dan Fotu producing a monster double-double of 19 points and 16 rebounds while Matt Freeman scored 4 points. In addition to Rob and Kruz (7pts and 5rebs) the Tuatara had Charlie Dalton (9 points), Tom Beattie, Chris McIntosh and Reuben Fitzgerald.

24 hours earlier the Bulls had beaten the Hawkes Bay Hawks 100-99 in overtime with Dan Fotu scoring 13 points and Matt Freeman 11 points.

The Tall Ferns concluded their European tour with a 1-4 record ahead of the FIBA Asia Cup that begins later this month.

The sole win came against Poland a game in which Akiene-Tera Reed led all scorers with 24 points – also her highest score on the international stage.

Tera was second in scoring across the five games averaging 12.3ppg with Penina Davidson third (8.0ppg). The final game of the tour in Istanbul against Turkey was Penina’s 49^th test in the black singlet.

Rookie Tayla Dalton played the most minutes on tour (28mpg) while fellow debutant Ash Kelman-Poto also played all five games.

In other news a couple of Harbour athletes have changed their American colleges ahead of the 2023-24 season.

Jess Moors will move from Colorado State University to the warmer climes of Fort Lauderdale University, Florida for her sophomore year.

Also moving for her sophomore year is Zaaliyah Kailahi-Fulu who has transferred from Grayson Community College to Chipola College which is also in Florida.