Club Basketball Grand Finals Preview by Bruce Martin                              

 

A star studded Gators club basketball team is highly favoured heading for their first ever Men’s Premier Championship title but standing in their way is an equally determined and capable of an upset is Lincoln University side when the two teams clash on Grand finals day in Cowles stadium today (Saturday) in the main event at 5.30pm.

Fourteen keenly contested Basketball Grand finals will be contested in Cowles stadium starting with the Yr 5/6 and Yr 7/8 Boys and Girls from 8am.

Gators are unbeaten in the championship round with Canty Rams Marques Whippy and Inga Solofuti backed up by tall American Stephen Nosworthy and former Tallblack Jeremy Kench to the fore. Lincoln too are looking for their first Men’s Premier title, have been together for several seasons with James Cawthorn, James Levings and Canterbury Ram Xavier Shaw leading playmakers.

Gators had to come from behind to edge Hoben trophy winner Pioneer 93-88 in the semi’s last Saturday.

It could be an amazing quadruple of titles for Lincoln University as they are unbeaten in the Men’s Under 23, playing Pioneer Yellow at 10am and unbeaten since losing to Gators in the 2013 Grand Final.  The Lincoln Women’s Premier side, champions in 2014, are also unbeaten, playing Halswell at 4pm. Last Saturday they lead all the way but had to withstand a strong finish from North Canterbury, before scrapping home 56-54.

The Lincoln Women’s Under 20 team plays Wolverines at 11.30am in what will be another close final. Wolverines won the round robin encounter 65-60 but Lincoln prevailed in the Semi’s 68-55.

In other Grand finals defending champion Cashmere Maroon meets Burnside in the Boys Under 17 at 10.00am, Cashmere plays Wharenui Gators in the Boys Under 15 at 11.30am.

At 1pm two arch rivals Wolverines Blues, champion in 2010 and 2013 and Placemakers, champions in 2008/9, 2011/12 and 2014,  face off in the Men’s Division one final while Royals Dark Horses which pipped parent team Royals last Saturday meets Halswell Red in the Women’s Division one clash.

At 2.30pn defending champion Burnside-Checkers takes on UC-Christs College in the Men’s Under 20 final while Christchurch Girls High plays Wharenui Gators in the Girls Under 17 side

 

ALSO - Our CBA Club Awards Night is coming up soon!

• Wednesday 21 September, 7pm
• Hornby Working Men’s Club
• $10 tickets (email competitions@canterburybasketball.co.nz to book these, or buy these at Finals Day) which will give you one free standard drink, plus finger food to eat!

 

Same reminders as previously:

• Please ensure that your clubs and teams are familiar with eligibility requirements for players (usually four games are required to play before playoffs). A copy of our match rules is online here
• The Cowles Hoop upgrade ran into an issue with engineering, so is now occurring after our club finals – the Hoops and backboards are like the ones in Middleton Grange’s new gym though (and are in Cowles, just unable to be installed in a short enough time period between use!)

 

Previous Relevant Notes:

We will be posting up draws as they are ready to be communicated on this page throughout the season, a few reminders about our competitions:

• Bench responsibility – We’ve had issues with people not showing up on time, and/or being unwilling to help referee if needed. IF A BENCH GROUP REFUSES TO HELP OFFICIATE A FINE ($100) AND/OR LOSS OF COMPETITION POINTS (2) CAN BE LEVIED.

• Carol Bathurst – she is on partial ACC duties. You can help us by offering to referee a game before or after you play or coach. We have made a google form to capture referee contact details and availability to help us while Carol is away. Please pass this link on to any people who may referee from your club (or fill in yourself)

• Shot clock at Middleton’s Old Gym is only able to reset to :24 currently. This will likely be upgraded later on in the year, so no :14 resets are possible until later notice. (In a very close game, with time permitting at the end benches and referees can manually adjust time down, or count).

• Club consistency: A reminder that players are not able to play for two separate clubs (i.e. Gators and Pioneer). Players who only play for their school (up to BU17/TT, or WU20/WT) could play for a club as well, but are advised to check with their coaches before committing. A club/team is ultimately responsible for making sure they only play eligible players, lest they forfeit games.

 

Glory League

• The Amazon data center that GL uses crashed on Saturday 18 June, so some games have taken a longer time to upload and encode than usual. This is something the GL team is aware of, and working to rectify
• Scorekeepers – we’ve noticed a few teams on bench are not doing this correctly:
  • §  The scorer needs to put the correct player number who takes shots (or fouls)
  • §  The location of shot attempts is important for helping the camera identify the area of the court to focus on. This means the scorer should tap on the screen as soon as a shot is attempted, and their caller will say “Make/Miss [Number}”. e.g. Jane Doe (#7) shoots and misses a three, the scorer taps outside of the arc, and the callers says “Miss 7” 

Remember – if you have had any changes (coach, players in multiple teams etc) please let us know. These draws have all be done based on priorities – which includes referee availability, coaches and players in multiple teams, and represntative commitments. We have tried to fulfill other one off requests where possible, but these are obviously lower priority.