Westlake Girls High School were crowned back-to-back Girl’s Secondary Schools National Champions in Palmerston North on Saturday. In a repeat of the 2022 Grand Final Westlake defeated St Andrew’s College, Christchurch 67-53. 

The Westlake starting five were immense in the championship game with captain Rebecca Moors compiling a double-double of 19 points and 18 rebounds, Zenthia Stowers also scored 19, Emma Schroeder 14, Kodee Williams-Sefo 8 points and 10 rebounds while Lily Fotu contributed 6 rebounds, 4 assists to go with a couple of points.

Rebecca, Kodee and Zenthia were named to the Girl’s Tournament Team with Rebecca deservedly named the Most Valuable Player.

The Westlake win was even more noteworthy given New Zealand international guard Amy Pateman was unable to play at the sharp end of the tournament after incurring a leg injury.

Here is how the other Harbour schools at the National champs fared:

Takapuna Grammar School finished 11^th with Bailey Flavell averaging 34.3ppg  and Amy McKenzie 19.3ppg.

Northcote College claimed 19^th place with DJ Hannah and Lizzzie May each averaging 14 points per game.

Rosmini College, the sole Harbour representative in the Boy’s Tournament, failed in their bid of making a fifth straight grand final with the three-times champions having to settle for 9^th place. Zion Anderson led the way for Rosmini with 19.5 points per game while Josh Batty and Josh Wyllie averaged 14 and 10 points respectively.

There wasn’t much rest for Rebecca Moors and Josh Wyllie. With Nationals finishing on Saturday the pair were on a plane to Papua New Guinea early the following morning.

The pair are representing New Zealand at the 2023 FIBA U17 Oceania Championships in Port Moresby. In addition to Josh, Julius Halaifonua is also on the Men’s team.

Rebecca had a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds in the opening game but unfortunately the Kiwis slipped to a 74-59 defeat at the hands of Samoa.

The U17 men fared better beating hosts PNG 108-32 with Julius scoring 10 and Josh 5 points.

The Breakers began their NBL season in a positive fashion defeating Cairns Taipans 98-87 at Spark Arena on Saturday night. In front of nearly 7,000 fans it was a fitting way to celebrate Tom Abercrombie’s 400^th game for the club.

Another former Westlake and Harbour representative is at the other end of his career. Sam Mennenga, making his professional debut, impressed as he led the Taipans scoring with 17 points on 7 from 11 shooting. Sam Waardenburg was also in double figures for Cairns scoring 12 points.

Further afield Brayden Inger, a former Harbour and Rangitoto College teammate of Sam, top scored (20 points) for Hemel Storm in the English KitKing Trophy quarter-final win against Milton Keynes.