Namana shows ’em how

Champions: SE Systems rest after their grand final victory over Green Up. They are, back (from left): Rongomai Smith, Will Hocquard, Thomas Tindale, Harley Phillips and Anton Riri. Front: Marques Tukukino, Tyla Keelan-Phillips, Adrian Sparks and Reg Namana. Picture by Paul Rickard

Reggie Namana has played in more grand finals than any other active club basketball player in Gisborne.

And whether it be for Demolition, Celtics, Old Surfers, Boanergees, Sparks Electrical Systems, Troopers, Horouta, Vatos Locos, Blades, the Coast, Pirates, Old School, Uawa or SES, the Rising Suns great — as he did again last night — determined the outcome of the Gisborne Basketball Association’s showpiece.

SE won this year’s edition 41-29 against Green Up, who hit 10 three-point shots in the 2 v 3 semifinal, on their defence. Green Up captain Tyrese Tuwairua-Brown hit a three-pointer to open the scoring last night, but it would be the only one to go down until Will Hocquard dropped another for Systems 37, Green Up 24.

Namana was pleased with his unbeaten team’s execution of good strategy.

“Our defensive game-plan worked,” he said.

“We did what we do best, which is to slow the game down — they helped us do that by walking the ball up. And then we scored inside.

“They played their final (70-49) last week against City Lights.”

Rongomai Smith (11 points) and Thomas Tindale (10pts) were Systems’ main offensive weapons. Smith’s quickness at close range and Tindale’s size advantage gave the veterans an edge; Tuwairua-Brown (12pts) led all scorers in the grand final and his teammate Psalm Taylor (8pts) likewise took the ball to the ring with open jump shots not on offer.

Tuwairua-Brown, who scored 22 points in last year’s final and 15 on the big stage in 2018, said: “SE played good defence and were just too big for us at the other end of the floor. We tried to front Tom — that didn’t work — and he’s hard to shift in the low post. Unfortunately also jumpers didn’t fall for us in a slow-paced game.”

Systems led 10-7, 20-14, 28-20 throughout, having one extra substitute with nine players to eight: not for them this year the fate of Old School in 2016 when, outnumbered 9 to 7 by the also unbeaten City Lights, and without Smith, Harley Phillips and Rikki Kernohan, they were run off the floor 81-55. The union of SE and Old School this year has created a league titan, who claimed a second title for SES.

Green Up forward Khian Westrupp 4pts) made a put-back for Taylor and guard Zade Donner even blocked Smith’s shot from behind in the first period but SES weathered the storm. Their veteran Anton Riri even beat the quartertime buzzer from the right baseline as he toppled out of court.

Referees Clifton Blumfield and Ethan Ngarangione-Pearson were more than even-handed and accurate throughout.

They were outstanding.

Will Hocquard was super value too, for SES, making a back-arched near-impossible shot underneath the hoop for 14-7, and later bouncing off defenders on the right baseline to score again for 19-13. Green Up’s Adam Nepe was tough on Smith defensively — as he had to be.

Hocquard zipped the ball into Tindale on left side of the post for 22-14 to open the second-half scoring, with Nepe making the biggest defensive stop of the season against Hocquard (until the fourth period) to block his right-side lay-up attempt out of court at 26-18.

In the fouth quarter, Green Up’s Joey Ormond drew a double-team on the left side of the floor and found Taylor slashing out of the near corner to score for 24-32: a magical backdoor play. But the defensive “read” of the season — a testament to experience — came with one minute, 38 seconds remaining. Namana set himself on the left side of the court in front of Donner on the drive. The Green Up guard went straight into him and was called for the charge — an offensive foul — by lead official Blumfield on a night when the only other player to take a hit full-on was 12-year-old Jerome Tamatea for Old Surfers against the Gisborne Boys’ High School Juniors.

And so SE Systems joined Big Baller Brand (top tier B Grade), GBHS Juniors (second tier B Grade), Ngati Porou (A Grade women) and SE Systems (B Grade women) as GBA club basketball champions.

SES is the first club to have won both a men’s senior crown and a women’s championship in the new millennium.

If ever the grand final needed something to juice the crowd up, the three games preceding SE Systems versuis Green Up all did just that.

Ethan Ngarangione-Pearson (16pts) and William Collier (10pts) hit shots from all points of the compass in the Gisborne Boys’ High School Senior A team’s 67-35 hit-out against Campion College. Campion captain Robert Fysh’s crew have height, athleticism and attack the basket, but opposition skipper Henare Tofilau (9pts) and Cody Tarei (9pts) gave GBHS added punch and Carew Fearnley, Jonty Evans and Seb Wilson a greater rebounding presence at both ends. Eli Swann dropped three three-point shots to lead Campion’s scorers with nine points.

GBHS led 39-14 at halftime.

GBHS Juniors coach Keenan Ruru-Poharama played a great coaching hand in his team’s 54-32 B Grade second- tier final win against Old Surfers, who in at least two cases were 50 years their seniors.

The GBHS coach applied pressure defence in the second half, which — along with the veterans missing too many inside shots — spelled doom for the Surfers.