James Moors and Colorado State University Rams had to settle for fourth place at the Men’s National Invitational Tournament (NIT) after going down 76-74 to Louisiana Tech in the third/fourth play-off game.
It was a super competitive contest epitomised by the fact that Louisiana’s winning basket came in the final second of the game.
James Moors, out of Westlake Boys High School, scored 6 points to cap a very encouraging freshman season for the former Junior Tall Black.
He finished the campaign playing all 28 games for the Rams, making 21 starts. He scored 166 points at 5.9ppg and finished one rebound short of 100 for the season. His 19 blocks were the second most for the team
Former New Zealand U17 representative Tara Manumaleuga and the University of Arizona Wildcats reached the Women’s NCAA Elite Eight for the first time in programme history with a comfortable 74-59 win against Texas A&M in the round of sixteen.
Arizona will take on Indiana in the quarter-finals.
In other news Lauryn Mapusua has followed in the footsteps of Aimee Book and announced that she will leave her current university, “And continue my basketball career and academics somewhere else.”
Mapusua will step away from the University of Central Arkansas after a year having previously played two seasons at Hutchinson Community College.
Mapusua played for silver medal winning New Zealand team at the FIBA U18 Championships in Guam in 2017.
Book has played three seasons at California State University Fullerton but will seek pastures new for the 2021-22 academic and sporting year.
Both players are taking advantage of the NCAA ruling that for this year players can transfer from one university or college to another without having to Redshirt for a year. Expect a number of other New Zealand collegiate players to take advantage of this situation.
