This week’s edition of the Wrap has a distinctly international flavour. Four ex Harbour reps are on the Tall Blacks tour, while two current reps are at the Men’s U17 World Cup in Turkey and we also had two at the Women’s U18 Asia Cup in China. In addition the Westlake Girls team have been performing with distinction at the World School Basketball Championships in Macao, China winning the third/fourth play-off game to claim bronze.

Tall Blacks

The Tall Blacks have suffered two defeats in their build up to the Olympic Qualifying Tournament. 

In the narrow 73-70 loss to Finland Corey Webster led the way for New Zealand with 18 points while fellow former Harbour players Yanni Wetzell and Sam Mennenga scored 6 points and 3 points respectively.

Sam followed that with 12 points and 5 rebounds in the 88-59 loss to Poland.

New Zealand U17 Men

Jameer Reed and Gus Dallow are members of the NZ U17 Men’s team that have made an outstanding start to their FIBA U17 World Cup campaign.

New Zealand beat host nation Turkey 114-94 in their opening game and Argentina 89-81 in their second outing.

The team created a bit of history in defeating Argentina. Prior to the game New Zealand were 0-4 against Argentina at FIBA youth events and 0-10 all time against teams from the Americas but broke their duck with a disciplined, skilled performance.

Harbour’s Director of Basketball Greg Brockbank is an Assistant Coach with the U17 team.

New Zealand U18 Women

The Junior Tall Ferns, with Harbour reps Rebecca Moors and Zenthia Stowers in their lineup, finished fifth at the FIBA U18 Asia Cup in Shenzhen, China, unfortunately missing out on claiming a spot at next year’s U19 World Cup.

Rebecca was the fifth highest rebounder at the tournament, averaging 6.8 boards per game while, in addition to leading the NZ rebounding she also topped the scoring with 9.4 points per game.

Rebecca will now return to the University of Hawaii ahead of her NCAA freshman season.

World High School Championships

At the ISF World School Basketball Championships in Macao, China Westlake Girls High School have been excellent ambassadors for New Zealand and claimed bronze in the process.

They recorded wins against Chile, Hong Kong, Macao and India in pool play followed by a quarter final victory over Bulgaria.

Lake were then beaten 64-40 by France in the semi-finals before claiming bronze with a 64-35 demolition of Hong Kong.

Sal’s National Basketball League 

Charlie Dalton scored an NBL best 27 points as Auckland Tuatara won the Auckland derby at Franklin Bulls 89-78. Rob Loe was also in top form posting a double-double of 18 points and 16 rebounds.

Brayden Inger scored 19 points as Southland Sharks won 98-83 at Nelson Giants in the late game on Sunday.

James Moors also scored 19 points although that was in a loss as Manawatu Jets went down 121-94 to Wellington Saints in Palmerston North.

Kruz Perrott-Hunt scored 18 points as Tauranga Whai came up with a last gasp winner to beat Franklin Bulls 87-84 on Thursday night.

Overseas Professional PlayersIn the Australian NBL1 South League Keilor Thunder won 79-65 at Bendigo Braves. 

Akiene-Tera Reed threatened a triple-double as she posted 18 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Penina Davidson also had an impressive stats line as she accumulated 14 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks and a steal in the win.