Stefan Pishief's Marauders fought hard to control the tempo and were only two points behind at three-quartertime.
Wilson began the fourth period as he had the first, with a dunk (this time, with two hands). The Boys' High pressure defence had told . . . no less skilful a veteran than Adam Harford was being stripped of the ball at halfway. Harford (17pts) and Pishief (21) were towers of strength for the Marauders inside the key, with guard Simon Wilson (8pts) also chipping in.
Pischief said: “We had only one substitute but I felt — compared with last week — that we were more cohesive on offence and reduced the number of turnovers we conceded.
“It's been great to have Rikki Noble in the team the past couple of weeks; Adam Tapsell's behind-the-back pass for Simon Wilson to score was legendary.
“GBHS have scoring threats, they're quick and Seb's dunks — they're the X factor.”
The Massive Marauders and SE Systems are done.
Systems at least know that in their last hit-out of the season they pushed the Willie Brown-led Raiders to the brink.
Brown and Co won the second quarterfinal 68-63, having led 28-15, 42-31 and 61-48.
Ethan Ngarangione-Pearson (32pts), Hale Nepia-Sua (12) and Allies Rangihuna (10) were Raiders' chief scorers while, for SES, Carl Riini poured in 18 and Keenan Ruru-Poharama 15, with teammate Matt Kemp (12) giving them a much-needed inside presence.
Riini and Ruru-Poharama hit three three-point shots apiece and Wi Brown, two — eight treys for 24 of 63 points.
Raiders big man Cody Tarei played with good energy, took a couple of bumps from Systems commander-in-chief Adrian Sparks in good part and hit a 20-footer for his feisty team's first field goal of the third period.
“That was a tough game,” Brown said.
“We should have closed it off early in the fourth quarter, but we let them back in.
“We won that quarterfinal on our defence but, as far scoring goes, Ethan took a lot of pressure off me and he's awesome for us.”
Veteran Brown, whose duties for 20-plus years in the league have included scoring and carrying the ball, was stripped of it at halfway by lively guard Quaydon Chaffey-Kora, who then curled off the right sideline and got by Ngarangione-Pearson to score.
That revved the crowd up, and in short order drew an offensive response from left-hander Ngarangione-Pearson, with one of the best plays of the game: right of the SES hoop, he spun off the baseline to finish under the backboard for 56-39.
Champion clubs City Lights and Green Up deserve high praise.
The late game might have been a non-event, but premier-grade big guns City Lights and Green Up have a passion for hoops and pleasing the fans.
That's why the final score was 64-64.
City Lights captain Scott Muncaster said: “We hung around for three quarters. I was happy that we tied the game at 64-64. I was thinking about overtime, but no way was I thinking about a tie!”
Paora Dewes (16), Reg Namana (12) and two-trey shooter Ryan Walters of City Lights all made good on the open looks afforded by player movement and snappy passing.
Green Up's inspirational Weighn Wilson and Paddy Blackman led their scorers with 26 and 24pts respectively; Adam Nepe (8) also played a strong all-round game.
Two great defensive plays encapsulated the need for speed and ability to punish turnovers. The first came in the second period, when Wilson knocked the ball out of Tahu-Potiki Te Maru-Doran's hands on the drive, Blackman then hurling an assist downcourt to Wilson. In the second sequence, Muncaster deprived a driving Wilson of the ball at the rim. City Lights' captain then found the left-handed Dewes running down the right sideline with a no-look bounce-pass and Dewes subsequently found Zade Donner with a bounce-pass behind Blackman to tie the scores at 64.
