GBHS Senior B crowned champs

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Gisborne Boys' High School Senior B are Division 1 secondary school basketball champions.

The Bs' 71-57 win in last night's final against giant-killers GBHS Senior Diesel rested on three players — as opposed to two — scoring in double-figures. Diesel's Kapua Wharerau put up 28 points, the second-highest tally in Week 8, and left-hander Safin Tuwairua-Brown scored 16 — riches for many, but the Bs gave him few open looks at the hoop. Broughton-Pakuru and Weighn Wilson got the Bs off to a fast start, with a three-point play and three-point shot, but Wharerau's first field goal — to close the score to 6-4 — was a slick spin-move through the lane to score left-side. Rioss McHugh fouled Karta Paea on what became the first three-point play of the third period, and the tall Bs forward stole the ball from Diesel titan Cody Tarei, then hit the leaner for 51-42 on three-quartertime. Weighn Wilson (21pts) has been inspirational throughout the league. He hit two three-pointers to wrap up the final.

Seb Wilson has high standards.

But Week 8 topscorer (38pts against GBHS Junior Premiers) or not, the GBHS Senior Carbon captain wasn't happy.

Carbon beat the Prems 90-65 but as would prove to be the case for Diesel in the final, sometimes a team will play flat. That was the case for Carbon, even though they won the playoff for third and fourth by 25 points.

Wilson found Ngaru Grayson on the run to the left with a fine outlet pass for 34-19, Clinton Tarei supplied a wicked touch-finish to close it to 48-32, and Seth Miller of Carbon made two great plays towards the end of the third period. One was a trey from 25 feet and the other was a top assist to Manahi Bishop.

The Showtime tone for Week 8 was set by Allies Rangihuna (22pts), Kingi Te Amo (20pts) and Haeora Kerekere-Puke (16pts) of Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Nga Uri a Maui-Hawaiiki Hou, who beat GBHS Junior Crimson 85-37 in Game 1, the playoff for fifth and sixth.

Although they are predominantly a younger team, TKKM also contain strong athletes. Kerekere-Puke gave an early glimpse of that with an assist to Jayden Brown, who finished wide on the left side for 8-2.

And it wasn't all one-way traffic. Perhaps Crimson's strongest athlete, Jay Gordon, used a subtle fake to get inside Jarrod Hill for the first basket of the second period.

Hill scored the opening hoop of the third period in riotous fashion, a rarely seen shotgun lay-up.

Gordon gave one of the best assists of the night to Eruera Morrell-Baker, that being a great bounce-pass through the lane. Morrell-Baker scored to close it to 72-32.

The last game of the Division 1 final and playoffs night was a thing of rugged beauty: Lytton High School versus the Campion College Cougars. Lytton came from 17-5 down at quarter-time to draw level 23-all at the split and go into the third period 42-28 ahead.

It was a stunning fightback, and they won 51-41. Campion's Max Vanderbilt (18pts) and skipper Robert Fysh (14pts) hit the floor on most trips. No two players have gone harder, consistently, than these Year 13s for the Shane McClutchie-coached Cougars.

But Lytton have turned out some legends as well — Tumau Tuwairua (19pts), Tasman Guirau (13pts) and big Caleb Poole (11pts). Poole played strongly. The undemonstrative Lytton forward made one of the night's funniest fouls three minutes into the game — a bump with his left shoulder to discourage Fysh from taking the ball to the rack. Lytton played Game 4 with a passion last night. They earned their victory.

Gisborne Basketball Association secondary schools' league finals night, John McFarlane Memorial Sports Centre.