Big guns, heavy fire directed at students

My ball: High School Old Girls goal shoot Natalie Knight (with ball, under pressure from YMP goal keep Toni Halley) worked well with goal attack Ashleigh Brown to help their team beat Lytton Senior A 60-43 at the YMCA last night. Picture by Paul Rickard

NETBALL

THE high school teams were on the receiving end of some strong play from higher-ranked teams when Round 2 of the Pak’nSave netball premiership opened at the YMCA last night.

Taste One High School Old Girls controlled their match against Lytton Senior A and ran out 60-43 winners.

They led 14-8, 28-20, 39-35 and 60-43 across the four quarters.

“It was a tough game for the students tonight,” netball commentator Sherrill Beale said.

“HSOG are working well together and are developing good links into their shooters Ashleigh Brown and Natalie Knight.”

Beale said Lytton worked well in the third quarter and cut the deficit back.

“But they could not maintain it in the last quarter.

“Lytton shooter Manaia Hutana had a good game, as did Ruby Westrupp in the centre of the court.”

HSOG coach Tanya Owen said she was happy with the result, but not so happy with her team’s third-quarter effort.

'The students outscored us by four goals in that third quarter, so we need to work on our consistency'“The students outscored us by four goals in that third quarter, so we need to work on our consistency.

“Everybody in the squad got some game time last night, which was our aim, so that was good.”

Lytton coach Ronnie Martin said her girls did not start well.

“There were misread passes thrown away early on, but by the third quarter they were doing better.

“They played well in that period and had a chance to beat HSOG, but they lost that opportunity by inaccurate play and errors in the final quarter.”

In the other match last night, Whangara Old Girls convincingly beat Gisborne Girls’ High School 46-33.

Whangara led throughout — 11-6, 25-13, 37-20 and 46-33.

“Whangara had a strong game, especially their defence, who made life difficult for the Girls’ High shooters,” Beale said.

“Whangara goal defenders Tania Hill and Tiara Weir worked together well in the goal circle.

“The winners were able to get the ball into their shooters quite easily, whereas the students had to pass the ball around and back to the transverse line before going in to their shooters.”

Beale said Girls’ High coach Irene Takao made changes but her girls could not stop Whangara’s speedy play.

“Kaipo Olsen-Baker worked tirelessly for Girls’ High in defence and secured many tips and intercepts.”

Whangara coach Ronnie Martin said her team started fairly well and built their lead as the game progressed.

“But our final quarter was not good enough; Girls’ High won it by four goals,” she said.

“We threw some silly passes and threw the ball away too often, which is something we have to work on.

“If we played like that against a team like YMP we would lose by a big margin.”

Saturday’s matches feature YMP Sunshine Brewery against Claydens Waikohu (1) at 9am and Taste One HSOG against Horouta Gold at 11am.