CBA Winter Club Basketball 2015 by Bruce Martin 

Wolverines now leads the Premier Mens club basketball championship after four rounds when it systematically overhauled Gators, winning 74-59 in Cowles stadium on Saturday. The defending champion, Checkers, slips into a share of second place with Atami after it had the bye. Long term champion Atami bounced back strongly after last week’s humiliating 43 point loss to Checkers with an emphatic 93-80 win over a rather flat Pioneer while Lincoln University narrowly failed to lift itself of the lower end of the ladder when it was caught by University of Canterbury. Xavier Garnett-Shaw had a last second attempt to send the game to overtime but missed out and Canterbury University snuck home 81-79.

North Canterbury extended its lead to four wins in the Women’s Premier championship but had a less than memorable day as it struggled to overcome several strong fightbacks from Halswell before edging home 68-56. University Women moved into a share of second place after it thumped Gators 94-44 while Minties had to work harder to repulse an improved effort from Pioneer before winning 59-50.

Lincoln Bulls appears almost unstoppable in the Men’s Under 23 grade but had to work hard as the University of Canterbury side made a strong third quarter challenge before Lincoln pulled away in the fourth to win 81-63.

 

Gators, reinforced by Canterbury Rams Marcus Whippy and Sam Timmins, made a strong start against the Hoben trophy winner Wolverines, jumping to a 17-9 first quarter-lead through the efforts of Timmins and Under 19 rep Sam Lees.  Whippy worked hard on the defensive boards but lacked penetration on offence while the Wolverines defence locked up Timmins who had slotted a massive 47 points in a Thompson trophy games for Middleton Grange against Rangiora on Tuesday. Timmins still slipped in 24 points and took nine rebounds.

Led by the enthusiastic Mike Kinley (18 points and 10 rebounds) Wolverines came back strongly in the middle quarters with assistance from Taylor Britt (14), Lionel Hopgood (16) and David Gibb with 17points.Wolverines shot 37% to Gators 31%n and left Gators trailing the field with three straight losses.

Lincoln looked on target to move up the ladder, leading University of Canterbury 47-32 at the turn around through a good solid team effort but its Canterbury counterparts tightened its defence and shot more accurately as it piled on 27-8 in the third session through the efforts of Jeremy Hancock (31 points and nine rebounds) and Brent Fisher (17) to sneak ahead 59-55 at the last break. Aled Jones picked up the slack in Lincoln’s efforts in the last quarter but stout defence from Justin Kent and Karl Magon saw Canterbury University sneak home by two points.

Canterbury Ram Marty Davison failed to produce the magic of last weeks’ efforts, even with the support of a livewire Joe Cook-Green for Pioneer as Atami took control of the game. Pioneer led 25-17 at the first break but Atami levelled 43-43 by the turn around. Rams bench warmer Josh Petermann picked up the challenge for Atami and with support from Simon Hodgson and Rusty Thompson nudged ahead of Pioneer whose shooting game was well off target.

 

It will be back to the drawing boards for North Canterbury Women as thet almost fell victim to an improved Halswell effort. Just as North Canterbury looked to be in control a former Canterbury Wildcat Bridgett Salkeld shot five triple pointers to bring Halswell back trailing only 45-49 by three-quarter time. Gemma Hazeldine (20) led the scoring for North Canterbury while the usually reliable Mary Goulding was out of touch. Captain and Wildcat, Hayley Gray kept a cool head, slotting 16 points to keep North Canterbury ahead. Salkeld finished with 19 for Halswell while her former Wildcat team-mate Anna Williams dug deep for her 13 points.

University produced a powerful team effort to put its challenge back on track. Experienced Wildcats Pip Connell (19) and Rosanna Katene (14) were well supported by a gritty 13 from Bianca Aguiar, Sapphire Wairau (16) and 13 from Gina Papahadjis. Gator’s Paige Willman and Harriet Fenwick had to work hard for their small rewards by tight University defence.

Moli Daily (12) and Chelsea Jones (11) made inroads for Pioneer against Minties while Jess Rathgen had advanced skills to carry Minties to victory.

 

Results were:

MEN

PREMIER Grade Championship Round four:

Wolverines 74 (Mike Kinley 18, 10R, David Gibb 17, 10R, Lionel Hopgood 16, Taylor Britt 14, 8R) Gators 59 (Sam Timmins 24, 9R, Sam Lees 13). HT: 32-26, University 81 (Jeremy Hancock 31, Brent Fisher 17, Justin Kent 13) Lincoln University 79 (Aled Jones 21, James Cawthorn 17, Xavier Garnett-Shaw 12, James Levings 11). HT: Lincoln 47-32, Atami 93 (Rusty Thomson 25, Simon Hodgson 15, Josh Petermann 15) Pioner Pacers 80 (Cameron Costley 18, Marty Davison 18, Joe Cook-Green 16, Dave Langrel 14).HT: 43-43. Bye: Checkers. Points table after four rounds with games played in parenthesis: Wolverines 7 (4), Atami 6 (4), Checkers 6 (3), Pioneer 5 (4), University 5 (3), Lincoln Uni 4 (3), Gators 3 (3).

 

Under 23:

Lincoln University Bulls 81 (James Cawthorn 26, 8R, Josh Stempa 14, 10R, James Levings 13, 9R, Aled Jones 13, 12R) University 64 (Finbar Argus 20, 8R, Rohan Russo 12). HT: 49-34,

Wolverines 114 (Carl Isitt 22, George Love 22, Taylor Brit 20, Logan Woodill 15, Aaron Gunstone 14, Alex Irvine 12) Lincoln Longhorns 51 (Ben Cushing 22, Karese Lavery 12). HT: 53-25, Gators Green 86 (Sam Lees 19, Cam Chalmers 15, Barclay Millar 13, Liam Mulvihill 11) Pioneer Pacers 78 (Elliott Noble 25, Harley Campbell 23, Sam Riley 15),

Atami 85 (Zacc Dwan 27, Jake Simpson 10) North Canterbury 71 (Connor McCrossin 28, Lauchie Weston 10). HT: 42-40, Gators White 84 (Ashleigh Adamson 14, Tom Cooper 13, Alex McDuff 12, Harry Paulin 12) Checkers 45 (Ben Kroening 11). HT: 42-18. Points table after round 13: Lincoln Bulls 24pts, (12), University 23, Wolverines 22 (12), Gators Green 21, Atami 20, Pioneer 20.

 

WOMEN

PREMIER Grade Championship Round four:

North Canterbury 68 (Gemma Hazeldine 20, Hayley Gray 16) Halswell 56 (Bridgett Salkeld 19, Anna Williams 13). HT: 38-19, University 94 (Pip Connell 19, Sapphie Wairau 16, Rosana Katene 14, Bianca Aguiar 13, Gina Papahadjis 13) Gators 44 (Paige Willman 12, Harriet Fenwick 11). HT: 44-24, Minties 59 (Jess Rathgen 20, Natasha Van Vuuren 14, Sally-Ann Tull 12) Pioneer Pacers 50 (Moli Daily 12, Chelsea Jones 11). HT: 35-33.

Bye: Lincoln University. Points table after four rounds with games played in parenthesis: North Canterbury 8 (4), University 6 (4), Gators 6 (4), Minties 5 (3), Lincoln Uni 4 (3), Halswell 4 (3), Pioneer 3 (3).