The ‘A’ Boys and Girls finalists have been found at the 2019 Schick Secondary Schools National Championships in Palmerston North.
The 2019 ‘A’ Girls Final will feature Te Aroha College and Kavanagh College after Kavanagh beat Mercury Bay Area School 64-45 and Te Aroha were 73-56 victors against Tararua College.
The ‘A’ Boys Final will be a matchup between Opunake High School and St Kevin’s College after Opunake beat Manukura 63-53 and St Kevin’s trumped Mana College 86-75.
In the first ‘A’ Girls semi-final Te Aroha College, beaten finalists in 2018, defeated Tararua College 73-56.
With 19 points from Holly Ngaruhe and 16 from Sophie Oswald, Tararua was well in the contest at the three-quarter mark. They trailed by just four points (54-50) in a game that had been extremely close to that point.
However, the final period was all Te Aroha who unleashed a 14-2 run to take the game away from Tararua. Ana Nicholas scored the first basket of the quarter for Te Aroha but after that, it was the ‘Schuler Show’ as sisters Breeje and Dejaan scored the remaining 17 points for their team.
Breeje finished with 30 points, Dejaan had 21 and with Te Ana Barrett contributing a handy 12 points, Te Aroha advanced to the final for the second successive year.
In the second semi-final, Mercury Bay Area School had the better start against Kavanagh College and led 19-18 at the midpoint of the second quarter. Holly McCleery (19 points) and Olivia Clague (13 points) found the basket regularly.
After that, Kavanagh took charge with Otago Gold Rush squad members Anita Samasoni, Dre Whaanga (17 points) and Annabelle Ring (20 points) taking control. Kyra McEntyre also contributed eight points in a solid team effort.
The Kavanagh lead was 31-21 at halftime and they extended it to 54-31 at the last break. Their progression to the grand-final was never threatened but to their credit, Mercury Bay continued to battle to the end – their effort epitomised by Emma Hinds-Senior who sunk a triple on the buzzer to ensure her team won the last quarter.
For long periods of the first Boys semi-final, it appeared as if Opunake High School would coast to the win against Manukura. On the back of eight points from Ahurei Hepi-Karena, who went on to score a game-high 15, they led 20-7 at quarter-time. It shot to 33-22 at halftime and increased to 47-33 through three periods.
Manukura refused to lay down though. Kobe Millar knocked down a three and Mosiah MacDonald (12 points) followed it up with a steal and finish to see the deficit brought back to nine points (54-45) with just over four minutes to play.
This was soon followed by another triple, this time from Te Rangitautahi Ponga (10 points), to make it a six-point game. Scott Quinnell (14 points) and Ponga exchanged threes but Manukura was running out of time were forced to foul.
Kenan Sionetama and Quinnell were perfect from the foul line to guide Opunake to a 63-53 win.
In the second Boys semi, St Kevin’s College outlasted Mana College. After a tied first quarter (19-19) St Kevin’s pulled ahead in the second to lead 45-38 at the interval.
St Kevin’s, propelled by a dozen points in the third quarter from captain Jack Andrew, maintained their advantage in the third to lead 63-55 with eight minutes to play.
Mana had the better of the early exchanges in the fourth as Kawharu Hippolite (27 points and 15 rebounds) and Nathaniel Salmon posted points to get their team within four (68-64) midway through the period.
With Andrew (26 points and 19 rebounds) and Paea Fifita (22 points and 14 rebounds) in double-double territory, St Kevin’s again pulled away to lead 81-66 with just minutes to play.
Mana wasn’t finished though, as Levi Ware struck on three consecutive plays from beyond the arc to raise the hopes of the travelling support. St Kevin’s withstood the late Mana charge – Aaron Maxwell and Jack Souness (10 points) calmly sinking free throws to ice the win.
Eight teams have booked a safe passage into the quarterfinals of the ‘AA’ Tournament after winning their respective Pools.
Defending champions St Peter’s, Cambridge, St Mary’s College, Ponsonby, Sacred Heart College New Plymouth and Queen Margaret College are all safely through to the Girls quarterfinals.
The four boys teams with direct entry to the quarter-finals are St Kentigern College, Rangitoto College, Rosmini College and Cashmere High School.
Four Preliminary quarterfinals will take place on Thursday morning to finalise the contests for later that day.
In the ‘AA’ Girls, Westlake Girls’ High School play Carmel College, Manukura takes on Melville College, Christchurch Girls’ High School face Wellington East Girls’ College and finally, Hamilton Girls’ High School are pitted against Rangitoto College.
The Boys prelims are Rotorua Boys’ High School versus Mt Albert Grammar School, Napier Boys’ High School against Scots College, Westlake Boys’ High School competing with St John’s College and Auckland Grammar School battling Tauranga Boys’ College.
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.
