AA Secondary School Basketball Premierships (SI Qualifying)

By Bruce Martin

 

Burnside High School was well beaten 75-96 by the strong Otago Boys High school team in the Grand Final of the AA Secondary School Basketball Premierships (SI Qualifying) that concluded in the repaired Saxton stadium, Nelson on Saturday. In pool play Burnside accounted for St Bedes 108-54, Waimea Coll 81-50 and Shirley Boys 78-47 but was well beaten by Otago Boys High 79-63.

 

Christchurch Boys went through pool play unbeaten with wins over Ashburton Coll 89-49, Linwood Coll 95-21, St Thomas College 75-45, Lincoln College 82-64 and St Andrews 73-67. It had a comfortable 93-37 win over Kings High of Dunedin in the quarters. Christchurch Boys High bounced back from its semi-final loss to Otago Boys (61-92) to beat Nayland College (Nelson) 93 56 in the third placed 3^rd place play-off.

 

St Andrews Coll qualified for the National championships for the first time since 2008 by beating Papanui High 95-85 in the 5-8 semis  while Rangiora High failed to qualify after it was crushed 68-105 by Kings High school of  Dunedin. St Andrews finished 6^th, beaten by Kings High 94-71 and Rangiora High took 7^th place beating Papanui 72-52.

Burnside High, Christchurch Boys and St Andrews College all qualified for the National championships to be held at Palmerston North September 29 to October 2^nd.

Rangiora High and last year’s National champion Christchurch Girls high continued their long term rivalry with Rangiora taking out the third place play-off game beating Girls High 51-43.

Rangiora had big wins over Timaru Girls, Otago Girls, Marlborough Girls and MiddletonGrange school in pool play. Christchurch Girls High had comfortable wins over James Hargest College (Invercargill), Cashmere High and Craighead Diocesan (Timaru) in pool play.

In quarter-final play Girls High had to work hard to beat St Hilda’s Collegiate (Dunedin) 50-43 while Rangiora had a more comfortable 93-35 win over St Margarets College. Regular qualifiers Ashburton College outpointed Girls High 58-57 in one semi while eventual Grand final winner Waimea College pipped Rangiora High , also 58-57 in the other semi. Waimea College went on to beat Ashburton 66-50 in the Grand Final. Ashburton, Rangiora and Christchurch Girls all qualified for the National championships to be held at Palmerston North.

Clinton Olson reports on his Rangiora Girls

All our games (excepting the semi) were comfortable and large wins, with the team playing a level and speed above most of the other teams - Unfortunately we had our worst performance of the season against Waimea in the first half, shooting very poorly, striking foul trouble with key players, and we couldn't quite recover to win. We did make a great comeback from 12 down to be leading by 1 with 4 seconds to go, but couldn't finish it off. It was a good learning curve for the team - which will hopefully making us stronger and better for National Finals in three weeks.

Joe Hammond sent in his report

Yes it was an awesome week. The boys played excellent. I'm very proud of them.

Semi Final (Won): Nayland - Tom Liu 23 points. - We stepped defensively and battled a very physical Nayland team. It was a tough game with the Nayland supporters up to thier usual antics. Our guys focused on the game plan and I thought they ran it well. Up 24 points at one stage we had the lead chipped away until it was only a 5 point game! Luckily we hit our free throws and got stops down the stretch. Our back court of Kazuki(Tsukiji), Tom and Shou were outstanding on both ends of the floor.

Final (Lost) : Otago Boys - Tom Liu 27 points, Shou Nisbet 22 points. This was one of those games where the game plan was executed perfectly but unfortunately for us Otago shot the lights out from down town the entire game. Tom Liu was huge all tournament leading all scorers and Shou Nisbet was the best player in the competition in my opinion. To finish 2nd overall in the South Island, and be the top Canterbury team as well as win the Thompson trophy and to do this all without our Captain Jahnim Campbell and 6th man Lewis McMillan is just awesome. It's the first time we've made the South Island final so we are very happy with the teams results.

 

CH Ch Girls  High coach Phil Burns  said he was proud as his girls got out of their sick beds after a bug went through the team. They went precariously close to winning their semi against the strong Ashburton College side and a player was heading to the basket for one last ditch attempt when stopped by a non- descript foul call trailing and losing by the one point. Laken Wairau featured for Girls high with her baby sister Sapphire also looking strong and getting more and more court time.

 

AA Secondary School Basketball Premierships (SI Qualifying) September 3-6^th Nelson

Results from play-offs on were:

Boys

Main Quarter-finals: Otago Boys HS 93 Rangiora HS 62, Burnside HS 82 Papanui HS 69, Nayland Coll (Nelson) 91 St Andrews Coll 81, Ch Ch Boys HS 93 Kings HS (Dunedin) 37.

9-16 Quarter-finals: Nelson Coll 80 Waimea Coll (Nelson) 79, St Bedes Coll 95 Middleton Grange School 88, Cashmere HS 66 St Thomas Coll 62, Lincoln HS 88 Timaru Boys HS 74. 17-22 Quarter-finals: Shirley Boys HS 70 John McGlashan Coll (Dunedin) 57, Marlborough Boys Coll (Blenheim) 92 Linwood Coll 67.

Main Semi-Finals: Otago BHS 92 Christchurch BHS 61, Burnside HS 80 Nayland Coll 72. 5-8 Semi-final: Kings HS 105 Rangiora HS 68, St Andrews 95 Papanui 85. 9-12 Semi’s: Nelson Coll 86 Lincoln 59, St Bedes 86 Cashmere 82, 13-16 Semi’s: Middleton Grange 80 St Thomas 64, 17-20 Semi’s: Shirley BHS 62 Ashburton Coll 62-52, Marlborough Boys 96 Christs Coll 56.

Play-off 21^st: John McGlashan Coll 65 Linwood Coll 55. Play-off 19^th: Christs Coll 79 Ashburton 65, Play-off 17^th: Shirley BHS 85 Marlborough Boys 65, Play-off 15^th: Timaru BHS 90 St Thomas 57.  Play-off 13^th: Middleton Grange 70 Waimea Coll 49, Play-off 11^th: Lincoln 92 Cashmere 85, Play-off 9^th: Nelson Coll 111 St Bedes 96, Play-off 7^th: Rangiora HS 72 Papanui 52, Play-off 5^th: Kings HS 94 St Andrews Coll 71, Play-off 3rd: Ch Ch BHS 93 Nayland Coll 56. Grand Final: Otago Boys HS 96 Burnside HS 75.

 

Girls

Main Quarter-finals: Ch Ch Girls HS 50 St Hildas Collegiate (Dunedin) 43, Rangiora HS 93 St Margarets Coll 35, Ashburton Coll 67 Otago Girls HS 42, Waimea Coll (Nelson) 95 James Hargest Coll (Invercargill) 43. 9-16 Quarter-finals: Craighead Diocesan (Timaru) 49 Nayland Coll (Nelson) 42, Marlborough Girls Coll 66 Rangi Ruru GS 57, Nelson Coll 55 Middleton Grange School 44, Burnside HS 74 Cashmere HS 19. 17-19 Round robin: Timaru Girls 44 Linwood Coll 25, Villa Maria Coll 69 Linwood Coll 25, Villa Maria 56 Timaru GHS 23. Main Semi-Finals: Ashburton Coll 58 Ch Ch Girls HS 57, Waimea Coll 58 Rangiora 57. 5-8 Semi-Finals: St Hildas 59 Otago GHS 38, James Hargest 63 St Margarets 60. 9-12 Semi-Finals: Burnside HS 84 Marlborough Girls 70, Nelson Coll 52 Craighead 50. 13-16 Semi-Finals: Rangi Ruru 76 Cashmere 67, Middleton Grange 50 Nayland Coll 45.

Play-off 15^th: Nayland Coll 52 Cashmere HS 43, Play-off 13^th: Rangi Ruru 64 Middleton Grange 57,  Play-off 9^th: Burnside HS 67 Nelson Coll 64, Play-off 7^th: Otago 65 St Margarets 45, Play-off 5^th: St Hildas 74 James Hargest 46, Play-off 3rd: Rangiora HS 51 Ch Ch Girls HS 43. Grand Final: Waimea Coll 66 Ashburton Coll 50.