TAKING ON THE BIG GUNS: East Coast’s Whetu Haworth (left) takes on Old School captain Reggie Namana in Gisborne club basketball at the YMCA. Tonight East Coast take on defending champions City Lights, and Old School play Gisborne Boys’ High School. Picture by Paul Rickard
IT'S unrelenting pressure.
The three college teams — Lytton High School, Campion College and Gisborne Boys’ High School — each have once-in-a-season opportunities in Week 8 of Gisborne men’s club basketball tonight.
For Lytton, it’s a chance to get their first win of the season when they play Campion in their “local derby” at 5.30pm.
For Campion, it’s the incentive of recording a second win, when one might have seemed a stretch at the start of the competition.
For Boys’ High, it’s the opportunity to cause the upset of the season by beating Old School. They start at 6.30pm.
Defending champions City Lights will be favourites in their game with East Coast at 7.30pm.
The evening programme ends with SE Systems and Auto Go Pure Sound taking the court at 8.30pm.
It is likely that by the end of the night, Old School and City Lights (who drew 53-all last week) will still be tied at the top on 20 points.
Old School will have their two primary weapons — Rongomai Smith and Thomas Tindale — for the clash with Dwayne Tamatea’s Boys’ High team, but their third low-post option, Harley Phillips, is in doubt with bruising to his left knee.
Tindale (14 points) his captain, Reggie Namana (12pts), Smith, Phillips and TK Moeke — though clearly the bigger frontcourt — have a fight on their hands at the rim.
Boys’ High Super 8 tournament captain Sam Veitch, at 6ft 5in, and Tawhiti Rehutai, at 6ft 2in, are the Boys’ High tall timber. But Tindale (6ft 6in), Smith (6ft 4in), Moeke (6ft 3in) and Namana (6ft 3in) are the biggest front-court in the league.
Old School had won six games in a row until the City Lights clash, while Boys’ High began 2017 the hard way with a 65-26 loss to City Lights on Opening Night but bounced back seven days later with a 43-all result against Pure Sound, and won respect in a 51-43 loss to the Dragons after trailing by 15 points in the first period. They have one win — 68-38 — against Campion in Week 6.
Boys’ High guard Tyrese Tuwairua-Brown scored 16 points that evening. He led his team’s scorers for the Super 8 in Rotorua last week, averaging 15pts a game.
Boys’ High will need to compete hard at both ends consistently, run non-stop and commit themselves physically — as in, taking the offensive charge.
It will be fascinating to see how the youngsters respond to pressure from Old School.
Coach Dwayne Tamatea wants Boys’ High to play up-tempo basketball and use their speed. If they do that, they stand a chance.
Scott Muncaster is still ticked off about Week 7.
Despite scoring 20 points or more against Campion, SES, Lytton, the Dragons and Old School, the City Lights captain wants a strong performance against East Coast.
“We’re angry we didn’t get the win against Old School,” said Muncaster, who scored 24 points in last week’s main event.
“We want to carry on from that and we’re ready to go. We’re not underestimating the Coast. They won’t be a pushover, but we want to prove a point to ourselves.”
A focused Muncaster is indeed dangerous — he expects Game 3 tonight to be fast, and City Lights are a versatile team who can change tack as required.
As of Week 7, they also proved that they have matured and toughened up in their attitude to defence, giving no quarter there against the league’s superheavyweights.
City Lights’ Dom Wilson has upped his intensity in the past month, and his ability to shoot from the perimeter and take the ball to the basket could keep the Coast busy.
The Coast beat Boys’ High by default last Monday and were pipped 29-27 by Pure Sound in Week 6.
East Coast captain Brandon Paul said his side were looking forward to a good game.
The Coast tasted victory on the floor, 46-44 against SE Systems.
“For us, it comes down to executing at the offensive end and being hungry at the defensive end,” Paul said.
One of Paul’s great strengths as a talented player is that he shares the limelight. He could score 20 points himself most nights, but his team play unselfishly.
Whetu Haworth, an energetic and enthusiastic player, was superb for the Coast with 18 points, and the improvement of Drae Calles as a three-point shooter is a result of the team’s philosophy regarding the extra pass. The Coast are prepared to make that pass and in recent weeks they have greatly benefited from the availability of big Axel Campbell and athletic guard Jesse Torrey.
Rarely this season have East Coast had to compete without substitute players and their confidence is growing.
Basketball fans should enjoy this.
Campion College and Lytton High School are young teams who have come on in 2017.
Campion beat first-season team the 9ers 34-27 in Week 3 and the improvement of their big men, Konnor Gibson and Nelson Brown, has been one of the keys to their good performances.
Lytton High School played their best basketball to that point in a Week 6 loss, 43-35, to the 9ers but welcomed the return of regular captain Genesis Bartlett-Tamatea last Monday. His skill, athleticism, strength and experience at club level provide the young team with a lift against strong opposition, and Lytton have taken their lickings from the likes of City Lights without losing heart.
Louie Rangihuna led the team in Bartlett-Tamatea’s absence in the US, and did an excellent job. His own game didn’t suffer from the added responsibility — Rangihuna scored 13 points against the 9ers — and he shot the ball with excellent form reminiscent of his father, Koroua Rangihuna. Rangihuna senior was ever-ready to let fly with a three-point shot.
Rarely have Lytton fielded big teams (their biggest was the Ritana Bulls line-up of the early 1990s; they featured Dale Hailey and Dion Walker) and the likes of Nathan Wood and Campbell Dawson, 6ft 4in-plus, have been rare.
The current crew are both small and young, and so need to play the game as fast as they can, and hustle.
Bartlett-Tamatea hopes this game with Campion will at least be easier than clashes with top-three teams City Lights, Old School and the Dragons.
He realises, too, that Lytton’s best chance to win a game has arrived, although Campion — a bigger, older and more experienced team — go into tonight’s clash as favourites.
“We’re pretty optimistic,” Campion captain Patrick Murphy said.
“Our aim is to play our sets and finish our fast-break opportunities.”
Last week, Nelson Brown played strongly for Campion. He scored three field goals and has the athleticism to be outstanding. He has the potential to rebound, block shots and score in double-figures.
Campion coach Shane McClutchie has more than 25 years of experience as both a player and mentor in the league, and while good coaches see structure and execution rather than merely performance, he also knows the significance of a school derby and how much a win in Game 1 would mean to both teams. His calmness at courtside is a great asset to Campion.
A great tradition, a new lease on life.
Game 4 this evening will see league stalwarts Pure Sound become Auto Go Pure Sound for the remainder of 2017. Opposing them tonight will be an SE Systems team who last night struck gold with the acquisition of veteran forward Keith Lewis.
They also have Hawke’s Bay dynamo William Locquard, whose intensity and aggressive driving play make him a danger to all teams.
Locquard last week caught the Lytton defence on their heels as he took the ball to the basket past players never before exposed to the speed at which he attacked the rim.
Still, Systems captain Adrian Sparks is taking nothing for granted.
“They’re a good all-round team with threats all over the floor,” he said.
“Jason (Tuapawa) can run, Billy (Maxwell) is the ring-master and then you have to deal with Dale (Hailey)! That’s a tough night.”
The Systems skipper knows that Tuapawa’s sheer power is perfectly suited to wide-open basketball, Maxwell is having a bumper season with his passing game, and Hailey’s defensive presence is such that Pure Sound’s opposition are often intimidated into passing back out from the interior, making half-hearted lay-up attempts or taking bad three-point shots.
Pure Sound’s second generation of Maxwell, Rose and Brown are looking more comfortable on-court by the game, but Systems have every reason to be positive about their chances as well. They are coming off a 78-32 win against Lytton, and they beat the 9ers 77-35 in Week 4.
In addition to the arrival of Lewis and Locquard, guard Kahn Grayson, Jackson Leach, Adam Tapsell and another old salt of quality, Anton Riri, are all in good form, while Anton’s son Daley has been perhaps the most improved young player in club basketball to this point.
He has played with courage, and shown quickness and flair. He torched Old School defender Gary Harding on the left baseline in Week 6 to score on his way to a nine-point game — Old School won 66-30 — and since that time, has played with confidence.
The Week 8 round ends tomorrow when the Dragons take on the 9ers at 8.30pm.