Girls bounce back after early losses

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

No Gisborne Basketball Association team ever bounced back harder from a tough start.

The Thomas Tindale/Adam Tapsell-coached under-15 girls lost their first three games — to 2020 champions Wellington and Taranaki on Day 1, and to Northland on Day 2 — at the national tournament in South Auckland, but won three in a row to finish last week’s tourney 13th of 18 teams.

The Jamieson Tapsell-led Gisborne crew were placed fourth in Pool A before turning their campaign around with a 69-37 win against Nelson of Pool C and an 83-72 win against Harbour B of Pool D on Day 3.

Gisborne came from 23-14 down at quartertime to go on to beat Southland 59-43 on Saturday.

Tapsell’s outfit conceded only one point in the second period, Southland’s Lynn Archer scoring two field goals before that as her team went to halftime 27-15 up.

Tapsell (12 points) and Taimarie Matahiki (11pts) played decisive roles in their team’s resurgence.

Gisborne outscored Southland 43 to 14 in the third period. In the fourth quarter they scored only one more point and gave up only two.

Tindale said he was happy with their last three games. He wondered how much higher they could have finished if they’d started the way they’d finished.

“But overall, I’m happy,” he said.

“They played up-tempo, aggressively. Everyone stepped up at one point or another and we had consistent effort from Jamieson Tapsell, Alex Campbell-Ratapu and Jayla Waru-Reardon.

“Our girls are basketball-mad. They’re all in HoopNation teams for October 14 to 17, and some will be playing in the Maori three-on-three tournament in December.”