His opposite remarked: “It was a tough game tonight — it was physical. It was good to have spare legs.”
The sixth man for Hearty Ngati was Drae Calles, who has had a leg injury and took the floor late in proceedings.
Backing Muncaster and Maile up was their inside threat Siaki Tui, who scored 16 points in a strong skilful display.
Going one better — with 17 points for Hearty Ngati — was sharpshooter Jesse Torrey, who took the first two periods to get going and then hardly missed.
Agonisingly for Hearty Ngati — who trailed 25-13, 42-33 and 60-56 throughout — at least six of the eight field goals he scored were made from 30 centimetres or less inside the three-point line . . . which might have meant a 79-78 win to HeartyNgati.
Muncaster played like a man possessed, giving Tui a great assist early on, and he certainly did not deserve to be on the losing team.
Kevin Hollis Glass Pirates lost by default to YMP Black in the other scheduled top-four game.
In the bottom four, a depleted yet courageous Gisborne Boys’ High School beat Lytton High School 43-41 in those teams’ second meeting this season and YMP White — their stocks raised across the board — produced their best basketball of 2015 in a 55-40 win against SE Systems.
YMP White struggled in the first round but have excelled in the latter half of the year. They recorded their second win (45-41) against Boys’ High on Monday last week and in this latest victory, against Systems, all the stars were aligned.
Captain Jimmy Wilson had returned from Australia, former New Zealand under-20 rep and Rising Suns point guard Leityn Swann joined the fray and 24-year-old Dom Wilson played his first game three weeks away from — potentially — a bottom-four final.
“We’ve got good height now,” said Jimmy Wilson, the youngest of three brothers to play for the Suns.
“Having Wi (Brown) in our team has been good, Willis (Tamatea) is playing well and our man Darly (Callan Whaitiri-White) is getting the hang of it now.”
Whaitiri-White was superb last night, competing hard for rebounds at both ends of the court and scoring six points.
That tally included the best play of the evening, as the eagle-eyed Swann, on the left side of the key, lobbed an assist to the leaping forward for completion of the “alley-oop” play.
SES led 12-11 early on but YMP took a 33-23 lead into halftime (on the basket by Whaitiri-White) before the game tightened up. The score at the end of the third period was 39-25 to YMP.
Young guard Genesis Tamatea led all scorers with 17 points, dropping five three-point shots — three in a row after quartertime — while teammate Jackson Leach (8pts) took the ball to the ring.
That classic jump shotSwann made a classic jump shot from the right corner, later held on to a pass from Genesis to score and was delighted to be home at the YMCA.
“It’s always good to see the boys and have a run-around,” said Swann, who now lives in Auckland.
“It’s about family.”
For SE Systems, the workload was high in all facets of play, with captain Adrian Sparks and Sean Pocock producing 10 points.
Pocock set an excellent screen to facilitate fellow forward Matt Kemp’s first field goal for 10-8 but there was time for slapstick comedy in the third period, Jimmy Wilson tagging Systems’ Francis Reid as Reid drove in from the right; Reid — with his back to the basket — made the reverse lay-up attempt while heading out of court . . . and the ball then hit the support post behind the backboard.
Where Systems’ Adrian Sparks attributed his team’s loss to “a lack of cohesiveness”, Boys’ High’s biggest challenges last night were numbers-related . . . and injury.
Super guard Freemin Te Whare scored two field goals while playing in some discomfort but Boys’ High’s Joe Te Maari was sensational in scoring 16 points: he was the difference between Boys’ High and Lytton.
Joe Kiri (10pts) and Mercy Bristowe (6pts) were also invaluable for Boys’ High, who blooded two new players: first 15 fullback Conrad Kutia and second 15 openside flanker Api Toheriri. Both rugby boys added value to the team, Toheriri hitting a three-pointer and Kutia scoring from the field on debut.
Kutia, Te Maari, Bristowe, Te Whare, Connor Mitchell and captain Ryan Nepe will join juniors Max Scott, Thomas Kepa and Corban Paewai in Rotorua today for the zone tournament, which starts tomorrow.
For Lytton High, consistent performers Gerry Kora (15pts) and Levi Hohipa-Henry (12pts) again led the charge but — as with Whaitiri-White for YMP White — yesterday was a watershed moment for Lytton’s left-handed Zaris Reriti.
Perhaps inspired by Hohipa-Henry’s three-pointer from the left corner and Kora’s snap turnaround jumpshot earlier in the period, Reriti attacked the basket to score and completed a three-point play before half time.
He scored seven points in a fast-paced opening game, Te Maari taking the boards by storm and scoring off one put-back behind Lytton strongman Ray-John Fox with amazing athleticism.
Boys’ High were 14-6 and 26-22 ahead in the first half before Lytton took a 34-33 lead at three-quarter-time. But they could not hold on and Bristowe scored the field goal that tied the scores at 41-all and the last basket for victory — a great relief for Boys’ High after two heart-breaking close losses.
“It was good to see the boys having fun — it was an enjoyable game,” said Nepe, for whose crew’s Day 1 in Rotorua tomorrow will mark the start of their last tournament this year.
“We want to end the season strongly: we’re down to play in the A grade, rather than prems, which should mean more even match-ups,” he said.
Injured Lytton captain Ethan Lankshear was proud of his young team, who have won two games in 2015.
“All the boys stepped up — they were enthusiastic, they played that way,” he said.
“It’s an intense rivalry on-court with Boys’ High, but we’re mates off it.”
