Basketball: Ex-Tall Fern's driving force behind youngsters

Bay A team's Campbell King (white) soars for a basket as Bay White's Kane Collier (black) defends at Centennial Hall, Napier, yesterday.

Central Zone U13 basketball

Anyone worth anything in basketball circles who knows Kirstin Taylor (nee Daly) knows what her demeanour is when it comes to competitions.

The former Tall Fern, who also played professionally and was briefly the coach of the men's NBL Hawks franchise team, is as feisty off the court as she can be on it - even though she has assumed the mantle of coach.

"It's a fantastic tournament and I love to see little girls running around playing basketball, not netball," she said last night as coach for the Bay A girls' team, who have been competing in the five-day Under-13 Central Zone Tournament in Hastings and Napier which began yesterday.

Her A team beat Porirua 75-23 and Taranaki 60-22 while former Lady Hawk Carly Glock's B side emulated that feat with a 46-28 win over New Plymouth and 81-20 against Palmerston North.

The tourney has enticed 31 boys' and girls' teams from the Bay, Manawatu, Taranaki, Wellington and Gisborne for matches to be staged at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale, Rodney Green Events Centre in Napier and the Hastings Sports Centre.

Taylor said both the girls' teams expected resilience against Wellington, Hutt Valley and Palmerston North.

"Gisborne also have athletes who can close down a good D."

The B side play Wanganui and Levin.

Taylor singled out B team's Raedeen Blake and A side's Melika Samia for averaging 22 points each.

The three boys' teams from the region had a mixed day - the Shane Brown-coached Bay A side beat the Bay White (development team) 69-38 before taking care of Porirua, 64-59 in the A grade.

The Whites lost 55-42 to Taranaki.

The Bay Black team lost 50-47 to Palmerston North before crushing Gisborne 133-2.

"The first game came down to the last shot but Gissy have some very young boys," Hiha said.

The Bay A campaigners will, no doubt, need to lift their standards considerably against Wellington A and Palmerston North A in tougher games today.