New Zealand has emerged victorious from the inaugural 3x3 Trans-Tasman Series, with both the 3x3 Tall Blacks and 3x3 Tall Ferns securing victories over Australia.

Three Harbour athletes were part of the successful campaigns played out in Invercargill last week.

Chris McIntosh and Denhym Brooke (pictured) were part of the 3x3 Tall Blacks team that, in an eight-game series, defeated Australia 7-1.

Chris, prominent throughout, was simply outstanding in the sixth game which New Zealand won 21-9 to take an unassailable 5-1 lead in the series. The shooting guard demonstrated his prowess from beyond the arc making four from six from distance. 

Harbour Breeze and Northern Kāhu player Azure Anderson was a member of the 3x3 Tall Ferns squad that eventually won their series 5-3 after being locked at 3-3 heading into the final pair of games on Saturday. 

Amongst our overseas based Harbour athletes Corey Webster and brother Tai scored 11 points each although Perth Wildcats slipped to a fourth straight Australian NBL defeat going down 84-79 at home to Brisbane Bullets. 

Sam Waardenburg (14 points), Sam Mennenga (10 points) and the Cairns Taipans were defeated 84-83 at Illawarra Hawks on Thursday with the Hawks winning shot made as the full time buzzer sounded.

Cairns bounced back in style on Saturday as they defeated defending champions Sydney Kings 87-80. Sam W played a major part in the win scoring 22 points while Sam M corralled 7 rebounds to accompany 4 points.

The Australian Women’s WNBL gets underway this week and we will be keeping an eye on the Melbourne Boomers who this season have both Penina Davidson and Akiene-Tera Reed in their line-up – Tera playing her first season in the WNBL. The Boomers visit the Adelaide Lightning for their opening game on Wednesday night. Tipping off at 9pm (NZT) the game can be viewed on FIBA’s YouTube channel.

Up in Japan Isaac Fotu had two 10-point outings as Utsunomiya Brex recorded a pair of wins against Nagoya Diamond Devils (coached by former Tall Ferns head coach Shawn Dennis).

Brex won 90-68 on Saturday and in a tighter affair on Sunday prevailed 70-67 as they improved to 7-2 this season.

Three of our former Harbour players based in Europe enjoyed season best outings last week:

Hemel Storm went down 106-94 to Derby Trailblazers in English League Division 1 action. Brayden Inger finished with a team high, and season best, 20 points in the defeat.

James Moors nailed a season high 17 points as he registered a double-double of 17 points (8/10FG) and 11 rebounds as Leeuwarden went agonisingly close to their first win of the season in the Dutch League – they eventually lost 76-75 to Den Helder. 

Matt Freeman also enjoyed his highest scoring outing this season although his Romanian club Craiova were pipped 82-80 by Pitesti. Matt finished with 6 rebounds to go with 13 points on 5 from 8 shooting.