Weekly Wrap - NZ U17 teams claim silver at Oceania Champs
Harbour reps Rebecca Moors, Julius Halaifonua and Josh Wyllie have returned from Papua New Guinea with silver medals after helping the New Zealand Women’s and Men’s teams to second place finishes at the 2023 FIBA U17 Oceania Championships in Port Moresby.
More importantly the top-two finish booked both teams a berth at the 2024 FIBA Asian Championship – the dates and venues for the champs yet to be confirmed.
Rebecca had a fine tournament, in the critical semi-final win against Samoa she racked up 9 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. MVP at the recent Secondary Schools Nationals Rebecca finished the Asian Champs as New Zealand’s second highest rebounder (6.4rpg) and third highest scorer averaging 10 points per game.
In the Men’s tournament Julius, currently based at the NBA Global Academy in Canberra, averaged 9.3 points and 5 rebounds a game while Josh averaged 4 points per game. Julius enjoyed an outstanding performance against Australia in pool play when he amassed 21 points and 9 rebounds and going on to be named to the Tournament All-Star 5.
Now to the former Harbour players in the pros:
Unfortunately the Breakers second game of the Australian NBL season resulted in an 89-84 loss to Brisbane Bullets at Spark Arena last Thursday night – 13 points from Tom Abercrombie in that one.
Elsewhere in the NBL Corey Webster scored 11 points as Perth Wildcats defeated Adelaide 36er’s 82-75.
Rob Loe added 7 rebounds to 10 points but couldn’t prevent Melbourne United slipping to their first loss of the season, going down 80-75 at home to the Tasmanian Jack Jumpers.
Sam Mennenga scored 9 points as Cairns Taipans eased past South East Melbourne Phoenix 87-80 while in the same game Sam Waardenburg pulled down a career best 14 rebounds to accompany 6 points.
In Europe James Moors enjoyed a productive debut in the Dutch League scoring 12 points (4/6 FG, 4/5FT) in Leeuwarden’s 93-60 loss to Zwolle. He followed that with a near double-double of 13 points and 9 rebounds in the 94-85 defeat against Feyenoord.
Isaac Fotu, playing his third season for Utsunomiya Brex in the Japanese League, opened the season with a pair of double-figure scores as Brex beat Gunma CT on both occasions in the opening weekend doubleheader. Isaac scored 18 points in the season opener on Saturday and followed that with 15 the following day. Incidentally former Breaker DJ Newbill will be one of Isaac’s teammates this season.
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