Basketball: Dunked-on feeling for HBHS

HBHS coach Curtis Wooten will expect his young charges to deliver in today's two games at the nationals in Palmerston North. PHOTO/FILE

"We got beat," was the response from Hastings Boys' High School basketball coach Curtis Wooten yesterday.

"They are a really good team and way bigger than us so they killed us on the board," Wooten lamented after Rosmini College thumped the Hastings lads 89-41 in their opening match of the New Zealand Secondary Schools' Championship at Palmerston North.

However, he expected his young charges to put aside their disappointment today with victories over Hamilton Boys' High School at 9am and Te Awamutu College in a 4pm tip off.

"It's been a long, long time since we were beaten like that," says the coach of the zone 3 qualifiers who recalled HBHS beating Rosmini in similar fashion in 2013 by 40 points when the Auckland school were the top seeds.

While Rosmini are this year's Auckland City champions and unknown quantities, today's opponents are familiar foes for HBHS.

Wooten said HBHS had lost by a single point to Hamilton Boys and Te Awamutu this year.

"Hamilton beat us with two free throws on the buzzer, while we lost on the last second to Te Awamutu."

He succeeded in playing his entire bench in the last five minutes yesterday when the game became lopsided.

Marcos Edwards scored 16 points, while Shay Wilkens contributed 12 to the collective for HBHS.

The disparity in size was obvious from the tip off against Rosmini when the opposition starting five dwarfed their HBHS counterparts.

"Everyone was saying your team is looking very young and I said that's because we are," he said with a laugh.

However, Wooten felt Hastings Boys' High were guilty of not chasing offensive rebounds and lacking the hunger to forage for 50-50 balls that were on offer.

"We got down by 18 in the first quarter but we closed it up to 12," he said, before Rosmini changed to another gear to leave HBHS spluttering.

With four more games before Thursday's crossover matches, Wooten was optimistic about securing a second or third place in their pool.

Tomorrow they play hosts Palmerston North Boys' High School at 12.30pm before tipping off against Selwyn College, of Auckland, at 5.45pm in their pool at Arena Manawatu courts.