All spots for the Quarter-Finals have been filled at the Aon U17 Nationals held in Hamilton this week. Day 2 has provided us with enough drama and excitement to last a lifetime, however the show isn’t over yet with another two days to play.
Boys Competition
Canterbury topped the table in an undefeated run for Pool A. They toppled over Manawatū earlier in the day but narrowly avoided a loss to Rotorua who put up a strong fight in their 89-92 win. Xanda Marsters (26 PTS) and Charles Anderson (27 PTS) combined for 53 points, but it wasn’t enough to secure the win with Canterbury sharing the scoring around the team.
Waikato A topped Pool B convincingly with wins all around and with convincing margins too. John Anderson averaged 18 points per game for Waikato, with an impressive 30 points against Taranaki.
Waitakere West proved to be strongest in Pool C, claiming no losses in potentially the toughest pool of the competition.Wins over North Canterbury and Auckland proved them to be fit for the top seed into the Quarter-Finals. Both games were solid team performances and they look to play Waikato B in their playoff game.
They say the Hutt goes hard, and they were spot on with Hutt Valley taking an undefeated run to the Quarter-Finals in Pool D, scoring wins over Franklin and Southland to progress as a top seed. Carter Berg-Mclean has been cleaning up the floor with an average of 19.7 points per game, making for an interesting matchup when they play Harbour on Friday morning.
Up-to-date schedule information can be found at https://bbnz.link/u17nats and the broadcast can be found at https://nz.basketball/tv from 10:45am on Friday morning.
Girls Competition
We look into Pool A first as North Canterbury secure top seed in their Quarter-Final after remaining undefeated. A win against Canterbury A 49-77 has pushed them to the top of the table and will see them play Otago in the first Quarter-Final for the Girls. Six players managed to score above 10 points in the match, meaning the all-round team effort worked in their favour.
Pool B saw the last game meaning the most as Waikato made it comfortably past Wellington to secure the top spot (77-52). Wellington will still go through, but will have to take on Rotorua to progress. Caitlyn Ward top scored with 22 points for Waikato, while Olivia Lassey scored 19 to keep her average across the tournament as 21.3 points per game.
In the only pool that didn’t see the top seed win all of their games, Pool C had some action going on to determine who went through. Otago’s loss to Northland on Thursday (53-49) meant that Otago needed to win against Harbour A to gain 2nd seed entry to the Quarter-Finals. They did just that with an 84-65 win. Laura Ring came to play, scoring 24 points. As Harbour A beat Northland earlier 31-68 (Draun Forbes, 18 PTS), this would mean Otago would move forward on tiebreaker rules. Complex, we know!
Finally for Pool D, Rotorua locked in top spot and Taranaki would secure 2nd seed into the Quarter-Finals. Rotorua claimed wins over Thames Valley and Auckland on Thursday that would progress them through. Four players for Rotorua scored above 10 points, showing the strong team effort could overpower Thames Valley 39-90. In fact, every player on the Rotorua team scored at least a basket. That’s teamwork!
Select games will be streamed at BBNZ TV from 10:45am so tune in to see who will keep their Championship dream alive. Check the broadcast schedule below to see what games will be taking the show court. The afternoon streaming schedule will be uploaded to our social media channels at the completion of the 12:30PM round.
You can see all the results on Gameday or by downloading the Gameday App on the App Store or Google Play and searching for “BBNZ Tournaments”
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Photos of the tournament can be viewed at https://bbnz.link/photos
