Commentary by Bruce Martin

This weeks CLUB PREVIEW commentary by Bruce Martin.

North Canterbury club and school sides had a very successfull weekend with eight out of nine teams all recording wins.

A depleted North Canterbury Women’s Premier club basketball side recorded its first win in the Patrons trophy round but had to come from behind before slipping past a rejuvenated Pioneer 79-76 in Cowles Stadium on Saturday.

North Canterbury was reduced to only six available players with NZ Junior Charlotte Whittaker having returned from a tour of China on Friday. Wildcat Hayley Gray, player-coach for North Canterbury, stepped up to lead her team to a narrow victory. She slotted a valuable 32 points, shooting 14-25 (50%) while the other two players to shine were Jemma Heap with 17 (7-13) and Tyler Courtney14.

North Canterbury closed to trail 34-37 by half-time but finally took the lead 49-48 early in the final quarter. A triple pointer to Gray 30 seconds out levelled the score 64-64 and after some missed free throws North Canterbury claimed the honours.

On Sunday Gray (13 pts) continued her top form at Dunedin where the Canterbury Wildcats came from behind with a blistering 21-7 last quarter to edge arch-rival Otago 59-57 and become top qualifier for the WBC Championships final to be held at Porirua May 12-14.

North Canterbury’s coaching development officer, Liam Connelly, practiced what he preaches with a superb 21 point (9-19) scoreline as his Men’s NC Under 23 team pulled back from an early 10-26 scoreline to outpoint Lincoln College Longhorns 72-65. Steadying the sides efforts were Lawson Morris-Whyte who controlled the boards with 13 rebounds and 16 points, backed up by Ben Hall (14) and Cody Alexander with 10. They caught Lincoln, drawing level 32-32 at half-time.

The NC Boys Under 20 side bounced back from last weeks narrow lost to hammer Pioneer, pulling away in the second spell to win 84-57. Alex Ross (20) and Jakob Eder (19) continued their hard earned efforts with able support from Reto Sori and Kalem Morgan.

Rangiora High BU17 side did their 74-72 win the hard way against Shirley Pacers in the Shirley gym. The team trailed 18-31 at quarter-time, pulled back to 40-47 and levelled 59-59 by the third break.

In the absence of Canaan Tarawa, Blake Cunninghame stepped up big time for Rangiora with multiple jump shots including a three to tie with about 25 seconds left and some steals. 

It was point for point in the closing minutes with the Macfarlane brothers combining where Lachie drove and hit Conor on a drive to the basket with five seconds left off of a perfectly ran inbounds play for Rangiora to take the win.

In the Boy’s Under 15 grade brimming with talent the two North Canterbury sides clashed in Rangiora on Friday night with the NC one team establishing a commanding 24-6 lead at the first break over NC two side and eased the pressure to lead 36-15 at the turn around. Through the scorching efforts of Caleb Cameron with 29 points NC One pulled away to win its second game 73-44.

On Sunday, North Canterbury teams came up with two more successes with the Division one Men accounting for Pioneer Yellow 66-59 and the Under 20 women beating Halswell 72-61.

Results were:

Women’s Premier Patron’s trophy: North Canterbury 79 (Hayley Gray 32, Jemma Heap 17, Tyler Courtney 14, Ash Fane 12) Pioneer 76 (Jo Casey 14 27, Bree Cumming 22, Connie Dick 10). HT: Pioneer 37-34,

Men’s U23: North Canterbury 72 (Liam Connelly 21, Lawson Morris-Whyte 16, Ben Hall 14, Cody Alexander 10) Lincoln Longhorns 65 (Tiger Brown 16).

Men’s U20: North Canterbury 84 (Alex Ross 20, Jakob Eder 19, Reto Schori 14, Kalem Morgan 10) Pioneer 57.

Boys U17A: Rangiora HS 74 SBHS Spartans 72.

Boys U15: North Canterbury One 73 (Caleb Cameron 29, Kaleb Chamberlain 18, Daniel Stockdale 12) North Canterbury Two 44 (Mason Whittaker 26). HT: 36-15.

Men’s Division One: North Canterbury 66 (Scott Edwards 21, Tom Falconer 12, Warena White 12) Pioneer Yellow 59.

Women U20: North Canterbury 72 (Molly Cockburn 12, Riley Harrison 12) Halswell 61.

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