Gisborne girls third at Central Region tourney

Gisborne Basketball Association under-13 girls’ representative basketball team members are, standing (from left): Bentley Morice-Munro (co-captain), Kiara Namana (co-captain), Te Wai Kauri Smith, Lischa-Rae Smith, Indie Nikora. Kneeling: Maeatera Olsen-Clarke, Quenella Hautapu, Bailey Garrett-Kora, Te Ataahua Marsh. Picture by Sarah Morris,

Thomas Tindale’s girls hummed in the capital.

Head coach Tindale’s Gisborne team at the Basketball New Zealand Aon Central Region Under-13 Tournament were placed third out of six A Grade teams at the Akau Tangi Sports Centre.

Last Wednesday, the Bentley Morice-Munro/Kiara Namana-led crew beat Taranaki Black 74-21 in the opening game: 14-4, 38-13, 60-13. Namana scored 18 points and Indie Nikora, 14.

Porirua survived a late run to prevail 46-39 that afternoon but Namana’s feat in scoring 16 points in a loss spoke to her ability to step up. Porirua led 9-4, 27-14, 38-28. Their skipper, hard-nosed forward Cassidy Karika, played a match-winning hand for 19 points.

On Thursday, Gisborne lost 59-43 to Hutt Valley but bounced back to beat Manawatu Green 41-26 at Rongotai College.

Wellington were superb in a 70-49 victory over Gisborne at ATSC to end round-robin play.

The Gisborne team had their second tournament win against Manawatu Green, 44-25 at ATSC in the second preliminary semifinal, Lischa-Rae Smith excelling with nine points in a game during which they held sway 14-5, 23-11 and 35-17.

Hutt Valley took the first semifinal against Gisborne, 58-40, on Saturday morning.

However, in the playoff for third and fourth against Wellington, Gisborne avenged their earlier 21-point loss with a 54-42 win in their last game at the Central Region Tourney. Co-captain Namana led all scorers on the court with 32 points.

Tindale served as assistant to Rising Suns legend Reg Namana last year — the coaching roles were reversed in 2022 — and the girls’ u13 team came sixth in 2022. Tindale’s 2023 team played a fast, aggressive and defence-oriented style of basketball.

“I’ve only worked with this group for a year but I’m very proud of what they’ve achieved because they’ve learned to trust each other, they’ve grown in confidence, they’re not relying on individuals as much and when they run the offence as designed, they have opportunities to score,” said Tindale, an Ilminster Intermediate teacher.

“Despite having injuries to manage and being smaller than every other team, we competed hard. We play with a lot of energy. I was impressed with the full-court pressure we put on Taranaki Black. We caused a lot of turnovers with our speed, and looked to attack the basket early and often.

“Game 1 was a blowout. In Game 2 we were 18 points down in the second quarter and fought hard to get the deficit down to two points but just couldn’t finish off the comeback.

“We also had three talented players who had to withdraw in the lead-up to this, our second major tourney of the year, yet the girls compensated for that. Along with Bailey’s hustle and Kiara’s overall play, our bench gave us a real spark.

“Scoring was spread around evenly. A few players averaged around 12 but Lischa-Rae was unreal, scoring when we most needed it, rebounding, and leading the defence.”