SES’s hard mahi gets the treats

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

The 2023 round-robin for men’s premier club league basketball is done and dusted and will long be remembered for having gone  out with a bang.

The biggest bang at the YMCA on Tuesday saw SE Systems topple competition leaders Green Bean 69-67 in Game 2 of Week 7 although the night opened to the sound of dunk-shots . . .  both made and blown.

Raiders players Ethan Ngarangione-Pearson and Luka Russell hammered the ball through and off the ring in their 97-38 win over Coastiieez. Ngarangione-Pearson  at one stage scored six consecutive field goals between 12 and 24 en route to 43 points  while Russell was good for 21 against a unit on the improve.

One gauge of Coastiieez’ development since August 1 lies in their spread of scoring — Chase Smith, Eru Keelan and Daniel Low all scored eight points against the Raiders.

Their athleticism, the physical presence of James Walker and a player much missed by them on Tuesday — Mikaire Bell — point to their outfit as having promise.

They and others at the YMCA who saw Ngarangione-Pearson find Russell open, left side of the endline, with a cross-court assist on a backdoor play and later hit a fallaway jump shot on the right baseline, might well have been inspired by those excellent plays.

Raiders’ Nelson Brown is a big man with genuine potential and finished the game strongly, pinning the ball to the right side of the backboard on Smith’s lay-up attempt at 75-25.

Brown’s captain Willie Brown, who shot the ball well for 17 points and leads a happy team, said: “Our boys are young and fit. They ran the floor — did everything.”

The end of SE Systems and Green Bean encapsulated all that is best about club ball.

SES forward Adrian Peachey’s touch at the free-throw line brought the hectic battle to a close.

His three-point play, with 7.6 seconds remaining in regulation time, gave the veterans the win 69-67.

That his offensive rebound and put-back — as opposed to a long jumper from Thomas Kepa (24) or a nifty step to the hoop from newbie Nickson Nikora (12) — decided the outcome is blue-collar proof that hard work pays off.

Game 2 got going with bombs as Green Bean peppered SES — Green Bean captain Weighn Wilson (8) from the left corner and Nuku Taylor (27) from the right.

Safin Tuwairua-Brown (21) hit a 30-foot shot from the top of the key for 17-14 and was consistently superb, but SES also made treys at crucial moments in a thriller.

Kepa’s third long jumper tied the score 26-26 and Keenan Ruru-Poharama (9) drew first blood in the fourth quarter with a trey. From the same spot on the left-wing, Kepa put SE 44-34 ahead.

Referees Donna Nepia and Ethan Ngarangione-Pearson were vigilant.

Nepia got Green Bean’s Seth Miller for a violation of the three-second rule for offensive players in the restricted area at the start of the second period; Ngarangione-Pearson got SE , when in possession,  for not advancing the ball to the front court within eight seconds.

Green Bean captain Wilson complimented both Gisborne Basketball Association officials.

“It was a tough game. We played well as a team, giving assists and getting steals, but should have gone harder on defence from the start.”

If Games 1 and 2 were for the artists and outside shooters, then Game 3 was one for the ruffians.

Defending champions City Lights beat a gutsy Massive Marauders 60-40 in what for Scott Muncaster’s Lights was a low-scoring grind.

Muncaster and Carl Riini led all scorers in the penultimate game of the night with 16 points. Zade Donner (12) gave City Lights a third scorer in double figures.

This was of great importance because CL powerhouse Rongomai Smith left the court 13secs into the second quarter, having rolled his right ankle.

That Smith made the first play of the game by blocking Daley Riri’s shot,  and featured in the last play of the game with a goal tend to save a basket,  was ironic proof that he wouldn’t wait half an hour, let alone a week, to test the strength of the ankle in question

Luke Bradley (13) was the only Marauder to score in double figures and he played a wow of a game all-round. He gave a long assist on the right to Douglas Jones for 20-44, hit a three-pointer with three seconds left in the third period and, off a Jones rugby pass,  got another assist to Riri for 28-46 in the fourth quarter. That done, Bradley dropped another three-pointer.

Riri (8) was, as usual, energetic while Simon Wilson (7) and Adam Harford (6) —hard-working souls week in, week out — chipped in for the Marauders from close range. Wilson has a soft touch on jump shots from 18 feet and Harford is a solid scoring option in the low post.

CL captain Muncaster said: “We got through despite injuries, shot the heck out of the ball and somehow played defence with only five guys.”

The Waengapu Stallions have got to come back.

The team, who began their inaugural campaign with a 27-77 loss to the Marauders in Game 2 on opening night, have come a fair way in the last seven weeks.

Though the Gisborne Boys’ High School Senior A team under Felix Sparks beat the Stallions 85-39 in the late game on Tuesday, the new club is thriving in their first taste of GBA action.

“We’re absolutely loving the competition as part of a sport that we enjoy playing, and the basketball community — teams, officials, administrators — have all given us a warm welcome,” said Waengapu Stallions captain David Sweeney. “We just love playing every week in front of and with the support of, our family and friends. That’s a high point for me.”

Skilful Ngaru Grayson (23), Clinton Tarei (15) and Jack-John Maurirere (14) all flourished with the wide-open brand of ball seen in Game 4, and of Gisborne Boys’ six three-point shots, Maurirere and Cody Tarei (12) dropped two per man.

Tarei opened the scoring with a put-back and Manu Jones was the first Stallion to notch up a field goal. He slashed to the hoop on a drive, and made the bucket on a catch-and-shoot from the left side of the floor.

Kalais Jury (6) put the ball back in the hoop for Charlie Kepa — a tremendous play — to make it Stallions 12 GBHS 27, and Ziya Swann and Grayson rewarded their Boys’ High cobbers willing to run the floor (such as Clinton Tarei) with great assists.

Tarei, a much-improved player in 2023, did the same thing for Maurirere at 46-16.

Jury made perhaps the toughest shot of the night for 25-56 in the third period.

He zipped out of the right corner, blew inside 6’6” Cody Tarei to the basket, was able to elevate and then score with Tarei’s hand atop the ball.

Such a thing takes strength, balance and control of a high order.