Melville High School and Manukura School are the only two schools at the Schick Secondary Schools National Championships with teams in both the ‘AA’ and ‘A’ competitions.
The two schools meet the ‘A’ eligibility criteria of having rolls of under 600 students however both schools have thriving girls programmes – strong enough to test themselves in the more competitive environment of the ‘AA’ tournament.
Manukura Girls, led by Rochelle Fourie who was named MVP in 2018 when Manukura won the ‘A’ title.
Melville High Girls, coached by 2018 Tall Fern Alyssa Hirawani, are no strangers to success in the ‘AA’ competition having made the top four in 2017.
In their opening game, Melville faced Hutt Valley High, the 2019 Wellington School’s Sharp Cup winners. Melville trailed by just three points with ten minutes to play but eventually lost 81-64 despite 32 points from captain Aria Cowley and 14 from Leila Ta’ala. Jennarose Mafua top-scored for Hutt with 25 points.
Manukura Girls head coach Joe Frost, a recipient of the BBNZ Services to Coaching Award for 2017, said he was looking to challenge his players.
“We wanted to give our players the opportunity to play against the best. The idea stemmed from the school principal who felt it was an opportunity to put the girls under a bit of pressure and give them a bit of leadership.
“In January, when they gave me a list of players that were available, I felt there was a good possibility of being in the top eight if they all play, including our three seniors Harata Coleman, Talon August and Rochelle Fourie who was Tournament MVP in the 2018 ‘A’ Championships.
“At the end of the day, it was still about a challenge for the players. Get out there and give it a go and push through.
“We managed to finish third in the qualifiers playing against the good Wellington schools. The girls put it together as a unit and showed plenty of ticker.
“We want to give the girls self-belief. You don’t have to be absolutely talented but, if you bring what you have got, it’s up to the coaches to make it work.”
Frost hasn’t set unrealistic goals for his young team but vows they will put their best foot forward and give it 100%.
“If we can make the top three in our pool and get a cross-over scenario then we give ourselves a top eight opportunity,” added Frost.
In arguably the match of the day, Manukura opened their campaign against Napier Girls’ High School in a game that would have thrilled those watching side-line and on the live stream.
The first overtime game of the tournament was eventually won by Manukura 87-88 after the scores were tied 77 points apiece in regulation.
Outstanding guard Melika Samia scored 22 points for Napier but it was the experienced Rochelle Fourie and Harata Coleman that carried the day for Manukura scoring 23 points apiece in a contest that had multiple lead changes.
Melville High Boys are back at Nationals after a two-year break with coach Jarrad Gallagher admitting the boys’ programme is currently not as strong as the girls’.
“The boys are playing in the second tier of the Waikato Schools competition, the Premier Reserves, whereas the girls are in the top tier and finished third in the Premier Grade this season.
“We are a small school with a roll of under 600 students so we try and choose the level of competition that is appropriate for the ability of the teams,” added Gallagher.
Appropriately Manukura and Melville opened the ‘A’ Boys Tournament at Fly Palmy Arena on Monday morning in a Pool B clash with Manukura and prevailed 75-52. Shae Brown knocked down five threes on his way to 25 points, with Mosiah Macdonald (18pts) and Te Ahuru Wilton (14pts) providing able support. Ezra Harris top-scored for Melville with 17 points.
Later in the day, Melville suffered a second defeat going down 103-69 to Mana College. Tawhari King top-scored for Melville with 22 points whilst Carlos Joyce made all his 18 points from the three-point line. Wiremu Wana and Levi Ware had 28 and 22 respectively for Mana.
Manukura finished sixth both last year and in 2017, and would love nothing more than to emulate the 2016 team and make a return to the ‘A’ grand final on Thursday night. They have begun the tournament well as they followed up their win against Melville with another victory – a nail biter against Nga Taiatea Wharekura – where they squeezed home 78-75, reversing the result of their match-up at qualifiers last month.
The trio of Brown (22pts), Wilton (20pts) and MacDonald (19pts) again led the Manukura effort with Tetuhikiterangi Lewis (22pts) and Te Tuaio Rautangata (22pts) prominent in a losing cause
Manukura coach Tia Temata-Frost was pleased with the showing of his team on day one, but far from complacent.
“We try to instil in the guys to take it game by game. Our aim is to make the top two in our pool and then will reassess our goals after that.
“The game against Nga Taiatea Wharekura was tight, but we try and train like we are playing a semi-final type game getting the boys used to playing under pressure.
Temata-Frost, a Maori Studies teacher at Manukura, takes great pride in expounding the philosophy of the school.
“Our philosophy is to drive academic excellence through having sport as a catalyst. We help a lot of Maori and Pacific Island kids who have sport as their goal but being able to transition a lot of what they do in sport into their academics is rewarding. Our results speak for themselves.
“I love what I do,” added Temata-Frost.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
The draw, pools and future live stream timings can be found here.
LIVE STREAM
Four games are being live streamed every day on the Fly Palmy Arena court. These can be watched on either our website or Facebook page.
ONLINE RESULTS
Results from today’s fixtures will be updated after each round and can be found at the link below.
‘A’ Tournament Dates: September 30 – October 3 – click here
‘AA’ Tournament Dates: September 30 – October 5 – click here
TICKET PRICES
Daily Pass
- $5 Adults per day (18 years and older)
- $3 Child per day (all children 14 years and younger must be accompanied by an adult)
- $15 Family per day (two adults and two children)
- FREE 5 years and under
Weekly Pass
- $20 Adult weekly pass
- $15 Child weekly pass
- $52 Family weekly pass (two adults and two children)
For more go to www.nz.basketball and Basketball New Zealand’s social media channels: @BasketballNZ Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
