The Zone 1 Qualifying Tournament for the Secondary Schools National Championships took place at Eventfinda Stadium last week with Harbour schools experiencing a mixed bag of results as they battled for a berth at the National Championships to be held in Palmerston North at the end of the month.

Runners-up at Nationals in 2022, Rosmini College defeated Mt Albert Grammar School 66-51, to win the Boy’s Tournament Saturday evening.

The two teams had met in the Auckland Prems Final the previous week, a game in which MAGS prevailed 79-78, but this time around it was Rosmini that triumphed in a relatively low scoring game. Rosmini were paced by Zion Anderson (21 points) and Jameer Reed (15 points)

Unfortunately Rosmini will be the only North Harbour boys team at Nationals after Northcote College (8^th), Westlake Boys (9^th), Rangitoto College (11^th) and Long Bay College (21^st) failed to make the top seven at the tournament and secure a berth in Palmerston North.

There was better news in the Girls Qualifying Tournament as Westlake Girls High School defeated Mt Albert Grammar School 90-61 to win the Zone 1 Championship. Westlake have completed the double of winning the Auckland Premier Grade title and the Qualifying Tournament for the second successive year.

In the Final Rebecca Moors scored 27 points, Lily Fotu tallied 14 points while Amy Pateman and Emma Schroeder scored 13 points each.

Takapuna Grammar finished fourth to clip their ticket for Nationals but with just six spots up for grabs Northcote College (7^th), Rangitoto College (8^th) and Carmel College (10^th) each missed out. 

BNZ Northern Kāhu are the regular season champions the Tauihi Aotearoa women’s national league and with it take top seeding at the Final Four next weekend in Wellington.

The eighth and final regular season round saw the Kāhu record an 87-75 victory against Tokomanawa Queens at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua on Saturday afternoon and then follow that up with a 99-88 win against Whai at Eventfinda Stadium on Monday night.

Against Queens Ilmar’I Thomas led the Kāhu effort with 28 points while there were double-double performances from former Harbour reps Akiene-Tera Reed (17 points and 12 rebounds) and Penina Davidson (15 points and 15 rebounds).

Australian Opals captain Tess Madgen set a new Tauihi single game record by scoring 37 points for the Kāhu against Whai while Tera chipped in with 10 points and Penina posted 9 points and 11 rebounds. The two teams will meet again in Saturday’s semi-final.

Following the conclusion of the Second Round of the FIBA Men’s Basketball World Cup it has been confirmed that the Tall Blacks have earned a place in the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournaments next year – keeping them on the road to Paris 2024.

In finishing 22nd overall and placing higher than five other teams in the Asia/Oceania region, the Tall Blacks will be one of 24 teams heading to the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournaments in June next year, at a location yet to be confirmed. From this tournament, the top four countries will earn tickets to the 2024 Paris Olympics, joining seven other teams who automatically qualified via the FIBA World Cup. As Olympics 2024 host, France also receives an automatic qualification.

The Tall Blacks ended their World Cup campaign on a high, besting Egypt 88-86 in their second classification game, in a game that went down to the wire.

New Zealand was spearheaded by strong efforts from Breakers duo Izayah Le’afa and Finn Delany who scored 27 points apiece while Isaac Fotu scored 14 points and Yanni Wetzell finished with 6 points and 7 rebounds.

Isaac, playing at his third World Cup, has moved to fifth on the New Zealand all-time list of points scorers at World Cups. Half of the Top 10 are former Harbour reps!!

447 points – Kirk Penney

262 Phill Jones

230 Pero Cameron

196 Corey Webster

191 Isaac Fotu

168 Tom Abercrombie

126 Shea Ili

102 Mika Vukona

99 Tai Webster

98 Finn Delany

Finally this week congratulations to former Harbour and Rangitoto College standout Brayden Inger who has signed to play for Hemel Storm in NBL1 in England for the 2023-24 season.