A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Never before.
Gisborne Boys’ High School beat YMP Black 49-45 on Monday night, the first time that Boys’ High have beaten the Gisborne basketball league’s longest-running club.
Whether known as the Vapours, Pure Sound, Auto Court, Rolling Players, Purp and Yellow or Lone Star Kairakau, the group that lost to Boys’ High have been stalwarts of the Gisborne Basketball Association for 20 years.
Undoubtedly the late withdrawal of big man Dale Hailey due to injury was a major blow to YMP and evened things up but the Ryan Nepe-led Boys’ High made a stunning start to the game. From the moment the captain opened up, crisp passing and great offence saw Boys’ High 17-4 ahead by quarter time.
The half time score was 31-17 to Boys’ High but YMP came back hard in the third period, their experience, toughness and Boys’ High turnovers bringing them within seven points — 38-31 down — at three-quarter time.
Freemin Te Whare (10pts) and Shaquaid Hihi (7pts) were outstanding for a Boys’ High team whose key to victory was a big early lead due to structure and composure.
Four minutes into the second period, Joe Te Maari got between YMP captain Billy Maxwell and Chad Rose, flew downcourt and gave a bounce-pass to Te Whare, who had cut from the right corner to score on the other side of the basket. It was one of the best plays of 2015.
Zepplin Kearns hit four three-point shots in his 14-point tally and committed his fifth personal foul against Maxwell at the three-point line with one minute, 33 seconds left, when it was 48-42 to Boys’ High.
Maxwell (8pts) made two out of three free-throw attempts to make it 48-44 while teammates Hukanui Brown (9pts) and leading scorer Willie Brown (17pts) also dug deep, but the night belonged to their young opposition.
“We let them play fast and they did,” Maxwell said.
“Everything works better for us when Dale’s there, and they made their easy shots. They didn’t back down.”
The Boys’ High captain was reserved in his assessment: “We played a good first quarter with our trapping and communication: the game was won on pressure-defence.” The Dream Team beat Kevin Hollis Glass Pirates by default.
~~
The monkey — which might have been a gorilla — is off their backs.
Lytton High School beat YMP White 54-44 last night to claim victory for the first time this season. It was a crucial game for the young Lytton team, who took their best chance for a win by playing the game at pace.
Lytton captain Ethan Lankshear led all scorers with 19 points while talented 16-year-old Levi Henry’s 17-point cut included four three-pointers. Lytton forward Zaris Reriti produced seven points and made a three-point play in the fourth quarter.
The school team were ahead 10-6, 20-14 and 36-29 throughout. Having led from the start, Lytton never made the mistake of falling behind. Playing without substitutions, YMP White were never far off the pace: Reriti’s field goal for 34-23 in the third period marked the first time that YMP trailed by 10 points or more.
YMP captain Jimmy Wilson (15pts), Genesis Tamatea (9pts), Ron Tamatea (7pts), Willis Tamatea (7pts) and Tony Akroyd (6pts) had to work hard to keep track of Lytton, who have gained in confidence.
Lankshear took the ball into Ron Tamatea early for 8-6 and Henry weaved between three defenders to score for 52-44.
Wilson has to do a lot for his team and he does it skilfully, hitting jump shots, scoring off put-backs and twice finding Genesis Tamatea with long passes. But his class notwithstanding, the night belonged to Lytton.
“The boys are listening and coming together as a team,” said Lankshear, who has good reason to be proud of his young players. That win meant a lot to us!”
The Wilsons, a great Gisborne basketball family, don’t get carried away in victory or defeat and so this from the YMP White captain means so much more: “They’ve got the basics and they’re not frightened to take the ball inside. They did well.”
“We stayed with them for as long as we could . . . but without bigs, those younger legs got the better of us.”
So said GBA legend and SE Systems skipper Adrian Sparks of his team’s 80-46 loss to Hearty Ngati.
Both teams had only one substitution to make but the absence of Pika Lolohea (overseas) and a hand injury to Sean Pocock made life difficult for Systems.
Hearty Ngati were pleased to see Sam Manuel return from America. Manuel, in fact, featured in the game’s first play, fouling Ray Noble as the SES veteran drove to the basket to score.
Noble (13pts), Jarrod Fitzgerald and Bronson Hedge (both 9pts), were the SES scorers of note, while for Hearty Ngati, Manuel led all scorers on the night with 24 points and Drae Calles produced 11 points.
Occasionally Systems players lost their marker on defence — and were reminded of that — but the headfake and quickness of Hedge in getting by Manuel to score in the fourth period was amazing.
Hearty Ngati controlled the game 19-8, 37-22 and 65-41, with 14-year-old Kaea Hills playing with flair and versatility for 17 points. He hit the outside shot and in the third quarter took the ball to the hoop through three well-set defenders.
“Our shooting was good,” Hearty Ngati captain Klay August (8pts) said. “Our all-round game was solid tonight.”