Court three at the ASB Sports Arena was converted into the Grand Final stage that the Harbour A Girls would play Waikato on. The curtains were drawn on both baselines and the main stand brought out before the National Anthem was played and the game got underway.

The two teams had already played this tournament in pool play when Waikato easily took out the contest.

To start the game Harbour was obviously nervous from the big occasion. They had early troubles dribbling the ball with confidence against only slight pressure from Waikato.

Tayla Dalton opened with two buckets giving Harbour the early 4-0 lead as Waikato were missing all of their, relatively easy, looks.

Waikato halted Harbour’s early momentum with a 9-0 run of their own. Charlisse Leger-Walker was a monster to begin with for Waikato and was obviously the best player on court.

Harbour was able to get Leger-Walker on two fouls early however she was left in the game, a risky move by the Waikato team.

Isabella Elgar took advantage of Leger-Walkers foul trouble and posted her up and was able to score unimpeded as Leger-Walker didn’t want to risk the foul.

Jordyn Maddix impressed early for Harbour with a putback score, an AND1 three point play, then a three from near half court to beat the first quarter buzzer.

Harbour found themselves down at the end of one 28-18 as the athletic Waikato got too many layups both on fast breaks and in the half court.

The second period started tentatively for Harbour with turnovers and poor shots the early trend. Jessica Moors made her first contribution to the game with a putback hoop and Dalton went coast to coast to try to pull Harbour back into the game.

Coach Jody Cameron was again unimpressed by the referee performance in the game as several calls went against her team with the ref calling the fouls without being in proper position to see the play.

Waikato’s Leger-Walker picked up her third foul and if Harbour had any chance of winning the title they would need to get two more on her quickly.

The half ended with Waikato in a commanding position leading 50-29 with Harbour only managing 11 points in the second period.

Mareta Davidson scored two important buckets for Harbour early in the third period as her team tried to rally from the big deficit. A cameo from Rashaan Smith added two more but the Harbour girls found it hard to make inroads into the defense especially when they were shaded to their left hand.

Many of the Harbour girls will need to be practising in the off season going left as the Waikato team marked only the right hand of the A team on many possessions and were able to get plenty of turnovers.

Moors had a very impressive quarter for Harbour and scored 10 points in the period alone in limited minutes. She scored easily on a fast break and when shaded left in the half court was able to penetrate and score easily over the poor help defense from Waikato.

Moors finished the period by beating the buzzer with a putback two as Harbour still trailed 71-47 with only the fourth to play.

In the final period Waikato were never in any danger of losing the game. Leger-Walker fouled out of the game but with only two minutes left it made no difference. Waikato were outscored by two points in the fourth but were able to comfortably take out the 2015 U15 Girls National Championship winning 92-70.

Waikato’s Leger-Walker finished with a remarkable stat line of 37 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals while the top performer for Harbour was bottom aged player Jessica Moors who tallied 15 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals and shot 7-10 from the field.