Waikohu, by a point

YMP centre Ata Mangu reaches for the ball with Waikohu goal attack Hannah Ormond close at hand. Waikohu caused a big upset against Whangara on Wednesday, and tomorrow YMP take on Horouta Gold. Picture by Paul Rickard

Waikohu tore up the form book when they beat Whangara Old Girls by a point in premier grade netball at the YMCA on Wednesday night.

Claydens Waikohu (1) beat Whangara 46-45 in a game that had the “wow” factor. The quarter scores tell the story.

Waikohu led at the end of the first quarter 11-10, then Whangara were up 23-22 at halftime. It was 34-all at three-quartertime.

“It was such a close game for the whole hour and the spectators were entertained by the good netball skills on display,” netball commentator Sherrill Beale said.

“It was virtually goal for goal for the whole game — very exciting.”

Waikohu coach Cheryl Te Rito was still ecstatic about it the following morning.

“I couldn’t sleep that night after the game and neither could the girls,” she said.

“We were texting each other about it all night.”

Te Rito said her girls had now come together as a team.

“It’s happened at last. Our new girls have fitted in and we are now one team.”

Te Rito said everyone played so well in all areas of their game that it would not be fair to pick anyone out.

Waikohu were down to six players for two minutes in the final quarter when goal keep Ani Tiko was sin-binned for two minutes for over-vigorous play.

“But the girls dug deep and hung in there for those two minutes,” Te Rito said.

“I am so proud of them. They left everything out on the court.”

Whangara coach Ronnie Martin said it was obviously disappointing to lose.

“We play to win, not to lose, but we only lost by one goal in what was quite a physical game.

“We‘ve just got to move on to our next game now.”

Whangara earned a bonus point for the close loss.

In the previous match, Lytton Senior A reversed the result from grading and beat Gisborne Girls’ High Senior A 44-37.

Lytton led throughout — 14-9, 27-15 and 36-23 at the quarter breaks.

“Lytton played as a team and pressured Girls’ High into making errors, which they capitalised on,” Beale said.

“Shooters Manaia Hutana and Reremoana Bartlett-Tamatea worked the goal circle well and gave their feeders good options to get the ball in to them.”

Girls’ High came back at Lytton in the final quarter after they trailed by 13 goals, but Lytton did enough to win.

“The girls started well and kept going, but when our centre Anatea Taituha got injured our pattern of play changed,” Lytton coach Ronnie Martin said.

“They went to sleep a bit and Girls’ High bucked up.

“The result certainly says the Lytton team have improved, after Girls’ High beat them in grading.

“They have learned their lessons big time, and corrected their play.”

Girls’ High coach Irene Takao said she loved the last-quarter performance by her team.

“It certainly gave me a good window on how we can improve,” she said.

“Every game there has been improvement.

“We had some players away from the last time we played them, but no excuses, we did what we could with what we had.”

She picked out defenders Kaipo Olsen-Baker (goal defence) and Annabelle Higgins (goal keep) for special mention.

“They really tried hard.”

• Just one premier match will be played at the YMCA tomorrow.

At 10am, YMP Sunshine Brewery take on Horouta Gold, and Horouta will be up against it.

“It was a big win to YMP the last time these teams met,” Beale said.

“Horouta Gold will need their team working together for the full hour if they want to take this one.”

On Victoria Domain, the intermediate and secondary teams have their last grading games.

“Our seniors and our Mother Earth Future Ferns also play tomorrow, so there will be lots of action — 87 games.”