A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
“Run them off the floor.”
That’s the order from Gisborne Boys’ High School head coach Dwayne Tamatea to his senior teams — Red and Black — ahead of Week 5 in the Gisborne Basketball Association’s men’s club league.
At the YMCA, Black take on the Filthy Dozen (5.45pm), City Lights clash with Old School (6.45pm) and Red meet SE Systems (7.45pm), while at the John McFarlane Memorial Sports Centre, GBHS, the Boys’ High Wolf-pack play the Gizzy Gilas (5.45pm), Old Surfers cross swords with Campion (6.45pm) and Boys’ High Blue v Lytton High School (7.45pm) round off A Grade competition tonight.
In Adam Nepe, Black has some physical presence but the Dozen — replete with skillful old heads such as Dale Hailey, Chad Rose and Siaki Tui — will be hard to beat.
Wi Brown of the Filthy Dozen remembers what it was like to be a young player, taking on local legends.
“It was good to go against guys like Reggie Namana in preparation for the age-group regional tournaments,” said Brown. “And it’s awesome too to play alongside them now — to see that they can still do the damage on the court.”
Red ran out big winners — 96-74 — v Old School last Monday but one of the latter’s big guns will be back this evening. Rongomai Smith is on deck, and he can’t wait to go at it with the Scott Muncaster-led City Lights.
“They like to shoot three-pointers,” said Smith. “We’re going to make them take tough shots.”
Smith sees CL as enjoying a bit of niggle, and he may be right: for more than a decade, Lights’ centre Ryan Walters has stood his ground against every big man from Hailey through Smith to his captain, Namana.
Muncaster relishes pressure. If Old School has substitutes this evening, Game 2 at the Y will be hard to call.
Adrian Sparks tells the truth.
“We may have no answer to the Red’s offense — going on last week’s performance — with the quality of their shooters and pressure-defence,” said the SES captain, whose team is coming off a 22-55 loss to the Filthy Dozen.
Tyrese Tuwairua-Brown, Sam Veitch and Holden Wilson all scored 20 plus-points for Red in Week 4: Systems will undoubtedly be pushed and stretched by the competition leaders, but during the past 22 years, the underdogs tag has never bothered them.
The Wolf-pack has a chance in their own gym.
Their B Grade opposition tonight, the Gizzy Gilas, are coming off a nine-point loss (56-65) to Lytton. And in player-coach Ray Noble, the Wolf-pack has both the brawn and brain required to beat opponents who swarm the basket, dispute possession and are unpredictable.
Not since TSOL Brothers and Munro Street in the early 2000s has such an unorthodox team played club basketball.
Both Oscsr Ruston and Rikki Noble of the Wolf-pack scored eight points in a 35-40 loss to Old Surfers last Monday and regular contributions of that type, plus defensive stops, is what they’re in the 12-team league to make.
Orlando Pedraza knows his team has it in them to play even better this evening against the Surfers than they did in their last outing, a 64-37 win v GBHS Blue.
“We’re looking to a good, solid game against Old Surfers,” said Campion captain Pedraza. “We’ve just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing, because that’s worked so far.”
Old Surfers deserved their win last Monday. They are starting to find their legs on the floor and play intelligent basketball: which is what Blue will have to do in the late game v Lytton. Darius Waititi-Leach scored 14 points in LHS’ win v the Wolf-pack. Blue will have to stop him getting to the hoop tonight.
Women’s draw for tomorrow night, at the YMCA —
5.45pm: Lytton High School v Paikea Nation
6.45pm: YMCA Riverina v Gisborne Girls’ High
7.45pm: Ngati Porou v Campion College.