Former Harbour reps Yanni Wetzell, Sam Mennenga and Taine Murray were part of the Tall Blacks team that lost both FIBA World Cup Qualifying games against the Australian Boomers in the past few days – the second a heartbreaker in Wellington with Illawarra guard landing a banked three on the buzzer to give Australia a 79-77 win.

The Tall Blacks were well placed in game one also – the scores level with five minutes to play before being edged 84-79.

Sam Mennenga was immense in both games with 19 points and 10 rebounds in game one followed by 16 points and 6 rebounds in Wellington.

Yanni Wetzell tallied 7 points and 8 boards in the opener and 8 and 8 in Wellington while Taine Murray, a trusted presence at the defensive end, followed 3 points and a rebound with 6 points and 3 boards.

In other news former Tall Black Tai Webster has signed with the Breakers for the remainder of the Australian NBL season.

American College Basketball

NCAA Division I

Tom Beattie averaged 11 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists as UC San Diego claimed the ESPN Events Invitation Tournament at Walt Disney World, Florida. Now with 435 career points he moves past Jack Salt (415 points) into 13^thplace on the all-time list of Men’s Division I points scored by Harbour alumni. Immediately above Tom is James Moors (490 points).

Julius Halaifonua equalled his season high with 16 points (7/10FG) and 7 rebounds in Georgetown’s 84-79 loss to Dayton.

Bailey Flavell scored a season high 20 points but couldn’t prevent Hawaii from going down 68-59 to Lindenwood.

Jess Moors impressed for Florida Atlantic with 15 points, 3 assists and 3 steals in a 76-71 win against Air Force.

Amy Pateman had a season high with 9 points for San Francisco in a 92-52 win against Cal State Monterey Bay.

Florence Dallow also scored 9 points, to go with 8 rebounds, as Portland secured a 65-52 win against Nevada.

NCAA Division II

Hannah Wentworth had a double of 18 points and 14 points as Lynn University beat Bayamon (72-64) and then Lake Erie by an identical score.

Charlie Dalton had 11 points, 3 rebounds and a couple of steals as Florida Southern beat Winona State 88-77. 

Boston Caldwell scored 8 points and secured 4 rebounds as Texas at Tyler proved far too good for Our Lady of the Lake winning 119-67.

NCAA Division III

Jacob Fotu made 8 points and pulled down 3 rebounds for Whitman College in their 83-70 victory over Caltech.

USCAA

Rocco Chang had back to back double figure outings for University of Maine Augusta. He scored 15 points in the narrow 74-73 win against Fort Kent and then a season high 19 points in the 91-80 loss to New England.

Canadian Universities

Lily Morgan pulled down 9 rebounds to accompany 6 points as Olds College beat Red Deer Poly 68-48.

Junior College

Aaron Sievert amassed 23 points as Casper College won a high scoring affair against Williston State 103-92.Joel Brown produced 6 points as Temple College fell 99-79 to Dallas College Eastfield.

Tauihi Aotearoa League

The semi-final lineup has been decided in the Tauihi Aotearoa League with Mainland Pouākai hosting Southern Hoiho and Tauranga Whai travelling to the capital to take on Tokomanawa Queens.

In the final regular season games Tauranga’s Emme Shearer enjoyed a 21-point outing in the 93-84 win against Hoiho while Penina Davidson had a double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds in the Queens 88-72 victory over BNZ Northern Kāhu at Eventfinda Stadium on Sunday.

New Zealand and Harbour representative Sienna Maurice – a year 11 student at Rangitoto College – scored her first points in the Tauihi League with 5 points against the Queens while playing over 20 minutes.