The U15 Harbour girls B team closed their first day with the late game against Gisborne. Emilia Shearer opened the scoring for Harbour quickly with a layup, however the early minutes went the way of the Gisborne team.

Their aggressive full court defense orchestrated by Coach Dwayne Tamatea was clicking to start the game and had Harbours ball carriers rattled. Gisborne were very vocal in their press which allowed them to get turnovers and easy points.

Poor defensive positioning from the Harbour girls gave their opposition enough of an angle to drive and get to the hoop. This either resulted in a layup or freethrows.

The B team mounted their comeback late in the first on the back of Emilia Shearer who started with two nice offensive rebounds and put backs followed with an assist to Centaine Noom-Duckworth. Shearer then ended the quarter with a Sweet coast to coast finish off a defensive rebound.

The second quarter followed the first periods blue prints with Gisborne’s pressure defense cramping the offense for the Harbour girls. Shearer continued her scoring with a three pointer as the shot clock expired.

The first half ended with Gisborne ahead 30-24. The girls were down only by six even though they had played fairly average so far, a promising sign.

Gisborne had drawn up a set play to start the 3^rd quarter but a quick steal and bucket from Harbour did not please Coach Tamatea who slammed his whiteboard to the ground in disgust.

Emilia Shearer flat out dominated this quarter scoring Harbour’s first 11 points off of putbacks, driving layups, and freethrows which had Harbour only two points down before Gisborne called time out four minutes into the second half.

The stoppage worked as Shearer was subbed and the Harbour offense turned into a shambles. Gisborne’s defense turned up the intensity and only Kaitlyn Morrell scored for Harbour in a four minute span of game time before a timeout stopped the bleeding.

Shearer returned to the game and the B team immediately lifted on both ends however weren’t able to draw even in the period.

Shearer made a strong driving finish then Piper Manolas got an offensive rebound and put back to go before the quarter finished off 46-43 to Gisborne. Harbour won the third period 19 points to 16 but couldn’t manage continue the run with Shearer off the floor.

Harbour started the final quarter strong with Shearer scoring five straight points and levelling the scores at 48 all. Gisborne needed a timeout as Harbour snatched the momentum with 6.50 left in the game.

The B team girls had plenty of chances to take the lead with five or six rebounds and putbacks missing from right under the hoop. Hannah Wentworth was hammered driving to the bucket but didn’t get the call as both Harbour coaches started to questions the refs decisions.

Gisborne then took hold of the game by scoring a bucket and the foul going up three. They then stole the inbounds pass and were fouled heading to the line for two as Harbour Coach Claire McCurran wanted to talk it over.

Shearer looked gassed down the stretch and repeatedly saw two defenders marking her when she had the ball and was aggressively denied away from the ball. Her teammates weren’t able to pick up where she left off and Gisborne were able to seal the game at the line.

Final score 59-51 Gisborne. Emilia Shearer unofficially must have had 30 plus for the Harbour girls, a very impressive display of driving and shooting from the young guard.

The loss saw Harbour B split their first two games at the tournament after beating Tauranga City 60-45 earlier in the day.

The Harbour B girls will face off against ACM1 and Wellington on Day 2 and we will have coverage of the Wellington game up tomorrow night.