Tauranga, under head coach Veni Luli, set high standards.
“We struggled defensively — Gisborne never give up at either end of the floor — but what did improve for us was that by the end of the game we were making the extra pass,” Luli said.
Some of the passing from both teams was classy, from the likes of Tauranga captain Moihi Gardiner who, along with Seth Whinney and Noah Martin, scored 14 points.
Martin played with great determination, staying alive on the left baseline to score off his own initial miss for 18-12 and making Wilson earn his bread on a three-point play.
TBC's Kiah Jackson led all scorers in the clash with 28 points, and never was he better than on a magic move inside for 42-25. Wilson brought both comedy (called for a push by lead official Donnette Daly, two minutes into the second quarter) and the rain, with a dunk-shot in the third period. Former international referee Daly and Harrison Downes did a magnificent job with the whistle: Daly's non-call on Collier, who on basket-protection leapt straight up — both hands straight up — as TBC guard Regan Wilson (6pts), driving in hard from the right, initiated contact, was one that — because the offensive player stumbled — is often called for him.
Gisborne Boys' High had good reason to be proud of Fern Maaka in Round 2.
Rookie Maaka, Year 13 at GBHS, scored 10 points for the competition underdogs for the first time. Rotorua BHS beat Gisborne 96-57 and threatened mayhem at 18-0 in the first six minutes. Their team is led by Nigerian Kenechukwu Nwafor, a 6ft 7in (2m) forward who will leave Raukura's programme for NCAA first-division college Rhode Island in October.
Rotorua head coach Theo Tait took the opportunity to give players outside the starting five more playing time, up as they were 29-9, 46-21, 71-40.
Elijah Fonotia led their scorers with 20 points, followed by Christian Vano 16, Shane Gifkins 15.
Grayson put up 12pts and Collier, Patea-Taylor and Maaka 10 apiece, but where Collier is a strong athlete and Patea-Taylor a natural ball-handler and scorer, Maaka digs deep, chases down every loose ball he can and, pleasingly, is learning to use his breadth of shoulders to make and manoeuvre into space, as does Gisborne club basketball titan Thomas Tindale.
Referees Downes and Sam Ratana are young officials who take the job seriously with knowledge, position, clear signals, communication and consistency of correct decion-making all on show.
Again, Grayson delved deep to find the first GBHS field goal, this time not just stepping but spinning between defenders to score, even as Patea-Taylor found a three-point shot from the right corner. Collier blocked a Rotorua shot — with his off-hand — in phenomenal style 29 seconds before quartertime and Patea-Taylor's dribble-penetration, for Collier to score low-left, the second field goal of the second period.
Collier made a great defensive stop on Nwafor and at times yesterday, the Keenan Ruru-Poharama coached team were heroic: Grayson made it back on defence to pin Gifkins' shot to the backboard — Rotorua were 17-4 up at the time — and Maaka got the last word in the form of a buzzer-beating jumphook to close it to 96-57.
Wilson said that hustle was a strength of Maka's and that he had shown great improvement. Maaka, in his fourth year in the game, pointed to Gisborne's energy as his favourite aspect of their team culture.
