U15 Boys Pipped for National Title
From Bruce Martin Sunday 28th July
Canterbury Boys brave second at U15's National Championships in Wellington
Both Canterbury basketball teams showed the effect of a strong development programme in the city when its Boys side narrowly lost the Under 15 National Championship Grand Finalin Wellington 77-80 on Saturday after having led North Harbour most of the way. Several missed pressure shots in the final minutes and a couple of turnovers robbed the Red and Blacks of a deserved title after impressive efforts over the tournament. Quinn Clinton (CBHS), who had just returned from Australian State Championships with the NZ U16 team, rebounded and shot strongly and guided Canterbury with a dazzling 33 points with strong support from Jaiden Manera (St Bedes) 25 points. Canterbury took an early 28-18 lead only to be pegged back to 51-46 at half-time and the game levelled 66-66 at the third break. Harbour continued to close, taking the lead with two minutes remaining, lifting its intensity and making fewer mistakes than Canterbury. Clinton and Manera were later selected in the tournament team along with Ben Harris (CBHS) while Clinton’s strong efforts all around the court saw him rewarded the MVP award.
The Canterbury Under 15 Girl’s side captured a creditable third placing, beating Otago 74-47 after winning all its pool games and beating Tarankai 93-74 in the Quarters. Canterbury failed to fire in the semi’s and was comfortably beaten 83-60 by the eventual Grand final winner Rotorua. Two University U20vplayers made significant contributions throughout the tournament Sapphire Wairau and Esra McGoldrick, McGoldrick slotting a valuable 23 points against Rotorua. For their efforts over the tournament Wairau and McGoldrick were selected in the tournament team.
NZ Under 15 Basketball CHAMPIONSHIP WELLINGTON
Pool Play BOYS: Canterbury 90 Taranaki 75, Canterbury 92 Rotorua 57, Canterbury 106 Tasman 38, Canterbury 85 Hawke’s Bay 72. Quarter-Finals: Canterbury 92 Waikato Red 62.
Semi-Finals: North Harbour A 86 Auckland, Canterbury 94 Waitakere West 83.
Grand Final: Harbour 80 (Cameron Stone 17, Thabo Manyere 16) Canterbury 77 (Quinn Clinton 33, Jaiden Manera 25).
TOURNAMENT TEAM: Quinn Clinton (Canterbury-CBHS), Jaiden-Lee Manera (Canterbury-St Bedes), Ben Harris (Canterbury-CBHS). MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: Quinn Clinton (Canterbury).
Girls Pool Play: Canterbury 81 Otago B 17, Canterbury beat Thames Valley, Canterbury 92 Palmerston North 28, Canterbury 85 Auckland 70 . Quarter-Final: Canterbury 93 Taranaki 74. Semi-Finals: Rotorua 83 Canterbury 60 (Esra McGoldrick 23, SapphireWairau 16), Waikato 59 Otago 58. Play-off Third place: Canterbury 74 Otago 47. Grand Final: Rotorua 78 (Hinekura Kingi 20, Pareunuora Pene 17, Awatea Leach 16) Waikato 55 (Kendell Heremaia 18). TOURNAMENT TEAM:Sapphire Wairau (Canterbury), Esra McGoldrick (Canterbury).
Canterbury Men take 4th and Women 5th at U19’s
Canterbury Men retained its fourth placing at the Under 19 National Basketball championships held in Trafalgar Centre and Nelson College for Girls gym after the new Saxton Sports complex was severally damaged by flooding a few weeks ago. Canterbury came back strongly in the final quarter after trailing the tournaments defending champion Waitakere West Premiers 46-57 in the third-quarter of the third place play-off game, only to run out of time, losing 72-78. James Cawthorn kept Canterbury in touch with a sound 26 points backed up with 10 rebounds and Nathan Campbell again toiled hard and long for his 13 points.
Earlier in the tournament, Canterbury demolished Southland 88-53 after a customary slow start in pool play through the efforts of James Cawthorn and Stu Erskine. In their second encounter Canterbury were again slow out of the blocks, trailing Hawkes Bay 21-13 at the first break and still trailed 50-37 at the last break but powered away in the final quarter to win 68-62 and a place in the main quarter-finals. Their other pool play opposition Thames Valley was a belated withdrawal.
In Quarter-final action on Thursday, Otago led out very strongly putting up numerous three pointers (sunk 9 to Canty’s one) and led 37-31 at half-time and 54-48 by the third break. A change of strategy by coach Kevin Greenfield, rotating his bench more often, saw Canterbury shut out Otago in the last quarter, keeping them scoreless around the boards (0/9 including five from behind the arc), Otago’s only points (9) coming from the free throw line while Canterbury shot 7-20 and outrebounded Otago 13-9. Canterbury came back to win 67-63 and set up a semi vs Waikato.
Canterbury where left flat in the semi against the strong Waikato side, giving away a huge 10-31 lead at quarter-time and started a comeback only to be kept back 24-45 at the half-time break. Although Canterbury came back even stronger in the final quarter they pulled up short to lose 58-79. Captain Nathan Campbell toiled hard for his 17 points and Regan Burnett was the only other member to reach double figures with some accurate free throw shooting. George Love contributed only four points but grabbed 14 rebounds.
The Canterbury Women’s side recorded two wins and four losses in pool play, its best efforts being wins over Thames Valley 70-44 and Otago 56-50. The team ran Porirua close before losing 64-74 with Maja Burry (16) Letitia Mullaly (15) and Laken Wairau the best performers but was well beaten by Waikato, Waitakere West and North Harbour.
In the fifth place play-off Canterbury again beat old rivals Otago 77-55 with main contributions coming from Maja Burry and Letitia Mullaly both with 18 points while the energetic Ashlee Fane added 15 points.
Results were:
NZ Under 19 Basketball CHAMPIONSHIPS NELSON
Results were: Men’s Pool Play: Canterbury 88 (Stu Erskine 15, James Cawthorn 14, Daniel Mulder 11, Nathan Campbell 11) Southland 53 (Mitchell Newton 14, Liam Mulvihill 11) HT: 43-23. Canterbury 68 (Nathan Campbell 13, James Cawthorn 10) Hawkes Bay 62. HT: HBay 31-23. Quarter-Finals: Canterbury 67 (James Cawthorn 17, 8R, Regan Burnett 13, 7R) Otago 63 (Darcy Knox 20). HT: Otago 37-31. Semi-Finals: Waikato 79 (Ashton McQueen 17) Canterbury 58 (Nathan Campbell 17, Regan Burnett 13), Hutt Valley 85 (Jackson Stubbins 25) Waitakere West Premier 71. Play-off third placing: Waitakere West Prems 78 (Mark Kelly 17) Canterbury 72 (James Cawthorn 26, Nathan Campbell 13). WWP 35-34. Grand Final: Hutt Valley 68 (Nico Buckrell 18) Waikato 52 (Ashton McQueen 20). HT: 38-20. TOURNAMENT TEAM: Nathan Campbell (Canterbury).
Girls Round Robin play: Canterbury 70 (Laken Wairau 19, Maja Burry 14) Thames Valley 44, North Harbour 76 Canterbury 32 (Anna Radovonich 16), Waikato 74 (Chelseah Savage 25) Canterbury 37 (Letitia Mullaly 12), Canterbury 56 (Letitia Mullaly 10) Otago 50 (Jeanie Pattison 22), Porirua 74 (Stella Beck 30) Canterbury 64 (Maja Burry 16, Letitia Mullaly 15, Laken Wairau 12), Waitakere West 85 (Penina Davidson 28) Canterbury 56 (Maja Burry 15, Laken Wairau 14, Letitia Mullaly 11). Round robin placings: Waikato 6-0, North Harbour 5-1, Porirua 4-2, Waitakere West 3-3, Canterbury 2-4, Otago 1-5, Thames Valley 0-6.
Play-off 5th place: Canterbury 77 (Maja Burry 18, Letitia Mullaly 18, Ashlee Fane 15) Otago 55 (Jeanie Pattison 24). Play-off third: Porirua 64 Waikato 49. Grand Final: Waitakere West 62 (Penina Davidson 33) North Harbour 45 (Gabriella Fotu 14).
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