Tauranga City is set for a dual campaign at next month's basketball nationals after the senior women's side breezed to victory and the senior men's team finished runner-up at the zone 2 premierships in Gisborne.
National bronze medallists and zone 2 champs last year, the Tauranga City men went into Sunday's final against Rotorua unbeaten but faltered in the second quarter, their one-point deficit blowing out to a 33-53 scoreline by halftime.
Battling back to win the third quarter 24-22 and dominating the final spell 20-13, the Tauranga men had left themselves too steep a hill to climb and saw the zone 2 title slip away in an 88-77 loss.
Coming through the tourney undefeated, the women's team clinched their zone 2 title in the final match of round-robin play, where they also faced hottest rivals Rotorua.
With their opposition missing two star players and reduced to just five, however, the Tauranga women had the run of the court to win 76-36. Rotorua coach Jeff Green, who guided both their men's and women's line-ups, saw little to gain in playing a final and ceded to Tauranga City.
Coached by Damien Bennett and managed by Neil Fullerton, the Tauranga men struggled against strong drives by Rotorua and also copped some tough rulings, Fullerton said.
"Rotorua were really putting the ball on the floor, running it up hard to make their shots. With their attacking game and what I feel were a couple of hard refereeing calls, fouling our players, we lost our composure in the first half.
"On offence we couldn't hit our shots, the ball kept rolling round the hoop, it just wasn't happening for us."
Guard/forward Eru Wills top-scored for Tauranga City with 26 points, forwards Matt Fullerton and Matt Kendrick contributing 18 and 14 respectively.
Point guard Tane Bennett was pivotal to Tauranga City's fightback, Fullerton added, despite only tallying 8 points on the scorecard.
"He really came through for us in the third and fourth quarters, he was able to get the ball into the scorers' hands and we also managed to get fouls on the opposition through Tane."
Rotorua's key strike weapons were top-scorer Ezra Nikora with 27 points and Green's son Danny, who landed 23.
Hometown side Gisborne finished third in the eight-team tournament, also advancing to the BBNZ open nationals, to be held in Wellington over Labour weekend (October 21-24).
"The main thing was to qualify," Fullerton said. "We have another opportunity at the nationals."
With Tauranga City Basketball hosting the NZ Breakers' ANBL preseason hitout against the Wollongong Hawks next Saturday, the Tauranga men's side will play a curtainraiser against a top Gisborne selection. The curtain-raiser tips off at Tauranga's new TECT Arena at 4pm, with the Breakers match getting under way at 7pm.
Already 2300 of the 3000 tickets for the Breakers game have been sold, with Tauranga City Basketball expecting a sellout by the middle of next week.
Tauranga women's coach Melanie Bennett, sister of men's coach Damien, said the deciding match against Rotorua turned into "a bit of a farce".
"We could have won by more but we didn't want to push it."
Running guards Laura Kuka and Katie McKenzie, and point guard Julie Adamson were standouts through the weekend, Bennett noted.
"Katie can shoot the lights out and Laura was probably the fastest women's player there."
McKenzie shared leadership duties with Maine Mareko-Johnson.
With the coach's niece Te Hiria Bennett injured and Tayla Utiera unavailable, the team took nine players to Gisborne. Both Bennett and Uriera should be back in action for the nationals.
Qualification for the nationals is heartening for the side in what has been a tough year.
In February, team member Rose-Ana Kingi, 21, was one of two people killed in the Waikato when another vehicle crossed the centreline and hit the car in which they were travelling.
Finishing third, Gisborne Ngati Porou was the other women's side to progress to Wellington.
Turning the tables on defending zone 2 titleholders Rotorua "was a good effort, though the competition wasn't as high as we'd have liked", Bennett said.
"Our preparation was pretty sporadic because of my involvement coaching the Tauranga Girls' College team for nationals."
Bennett was still buzzing from the Tauranga Girls' senior team's achievement at their first-ever secondary schools nationals late last month.
The side made top-eight at the event - played in Palmerston North from August 22-27 - eventually going down 66-59 to Auckland Girls' Grammar in the playoff for seventh and eighth.
"Laura Kuka had a phenomenal tournament, as did Kelly-Marie Turei," Bennett said of her school team. "Urupiki Gardiner also made a great impact coming off the bench."
THE TEAM:
Tauranga women's basketball team, from left, Maria Wilson (manager), Laura Kuka, Toni Braid, Justine Kirk, Julie Adamson, Katie McKenzie, Maine Mareko-Johnson, Mel Bennett (coach) Makayla Daysh and, in front, Courtney Wilson and Huriana Reid.