The U15B boys started the second day of their tournament against Otago and built upon a tough first day they had. The first quarter was indeed a learning experience for the boys as the referees blew a tight whistle.

Harbour found themselves already with five team fouls with only 1.45 gone in the first quarter. Tyler Martin, after an impressive first day, had to sit with two early fouls.

Joon Back guided Harbour early with quick hands getting him several steals leading to quick buckets. Along with Back, Ethan McClelland and MikaTuia forced multiple turnovers and scored inside whilst drawing fouls. Tuia also posted up inside and, using his athleticism, wasn’t able to be stopped.

The first quarter ended 20 all as Otago made Harbour pay for all the fouls with better than average freethrow shooting.

The second period was another tight affair with both teams only putting up 15 points in the quarter. For Harbour the contributions came from across the squad. Back, McClelland, and Tuia all added their touches and were aided by others.

Jackson Port made a nice jumpshot and swished two freethrows and Sean Murphy hit a pull up jumper for two to go with a three pointer he made in the first.

Recent call ups, Vincent Trasmontero and Jay-D Foley-Wilson, both helped their team with timely defensive efforts and rebounds.

At the end of the first half the score was 35 apiece.

Tyler Martin reminded everyone that he was on the team and hit a floater immediately at the start of the third. Then it was the Ethan McClelland show. He made shot after shot for the B team reeling off at least 17 points in the third period alone before he had to sit with four personals.

Otago fell behind ever so much in this quarter as they struggled getting easy looks in the half court and often turned it over on the fast break. The period finished 65-57 in favour of Harbour who began to get some separation.

Martin started the 4^th quarter by draining a sweet three off a baseline play however picked up his 5^th personal foul seconds later and had to sit the rest of the game. Martin, after impressing so much on day one, may have played less than 10 minutes in this game due to his fouling.

Sean Murphy assisted a Tuia layup and McClelland followed with one to Back who made the shot plus the foul. Harbour’s lead was at 9 when Otago decided to take a time out.

Back and McClelland dominated the next few minutes of play for the B team as the wheels started to fall off for Otago. One of the southerners players was given a technical foul for aggressively bouncing the ball towards the ref and the game was Harbour’s from there.

The final score was 98-71 as Sean Murphy hit his second three of the game for the cherry on top. Harbour played outstanding in the second half winning it 63-36.

In their game later in the day the B team faced up against a strong Waikato team who had a narrow victory over Palmerston North in their earlier game. The boys fought hard and found themselves down big but were able to bring the game right back in the closing minutes.

Unfortunately for the boys they had dug themselves too big of a hole to climb out of and settled for a 78-69 loss a tremendous result for a B team against a really good opponent.

The tough pool the B team find themselves in means they will be in the lower division for the playoff round. They should have a good chance at winning this division however may have to beat another quality team in Wellington that missed out on a top eight placing.