Congratulations to Jameer Reed and Gus Dallow on being named to the New Zealand U17 Men’s National Team for the upcoming FIBA U17 World Cup in Istanbul, Turkey beginning June 29.

Gus and Jameer were members of the NZ U16 team that claimed a silver medal at the FIBA U16 Asian Championship last year.

Sal’s National Basketball League – Round 3 review.

The first Auckland derby of the year went the way of the Tuatara as they beat the Franklin Bulls 92-74 in front of another good crowd at Eventfinda Stadium last week.

 Leading the way for the Tuatara were Rob Loe with 22 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks while Corey Webster also had a double-double with 19 points and 11 assists.

The pair were prominent again as the Tuatara completed a Round 5 double defeating the Manawatu Jets 98-79 in Palmerston North on Saturday. Corey scored a game high 22 points with Rob tallying 18.

Liam Judd was in fine form for the Jets scoring 16 points on 6 from 9 shooting.

The next opportunity to see the Tuatara is this Saturday, May 4 when the Tuatara will play the Hawkes Bay Hawks at Eventfinda Stadium.

The Rapid League game begins at 6.30pm with the NBL encounter commencing at 7.30pm.

Another strong showing from Dan Fotu couldn’t prevent the Nelson Giants going down 116-97 against the high flying Taranaki Airs on Sunday. Dan scored 23 points pushing his season average up to 18.5ppg.

Also on Sunday the Tauranga Whai hung in tough but eventually fell 85-74 at the Franklin Bulls with Kruz Perrott-Hunt tallying 17 points for the Whai. 

Oversees Professional Players

Australian NBL1 action:

In NBL1 South Round 4 action Keilor Thunder had a 79-65 win against Waverley Falcons with Penina Davidson notching a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds.

In NBL1 West Ella Fotu scored 15 points and Olivia Berry 8 and as Kalamunda Eastern Suns lost 104-71 to Willetton Tigers. Ella also added 4 assists and 4 steals in the loss.

Tochigi Brex have clinched the Japanese League Eastern Conference after defeating Chiba Jets 85-74. Isaac Fotu was close to a double-double in just twenty-three minutes as he pulled down 11 rebounds to go with 9 points.

Mentioning double-doubles, James Moors had 20 points and 10 rebounds despite  Leeuwarden going down 81-60 to Leuven in Dutch League action – the eleventh consecutive double figure outing from James and only two points shy of his season high.

Matt Freeman tallied 18 points as Craiova beat Timisoara 87-80 in their Rumanian League play-off fixture.