Coach Curtis Wooten says Hastings Boys' High School have their work cut out today to make top 10. PHOTO/FILE
Coach Curtis Wooten says Hastings Boys' High School have their work cut out today to make top 10. PHOTO/FILE
When the crossover phase kicks in during a basketball tournament the sound of some placings ring truer than others.
"If we win tomorrow [today] we'll be playing for 9 and 10 but if we lose we'll be going for 10 and 12 but I can tell you top 10 soundsmuch sweeter than 12," Hastings Boys' High School coach Curtis Wooten said last night, after his troops put Melville College, of Hastings, to the sword with an 88-59 victory.
The HBHS side play St Pat's Town, of Wellington, at 9am today but Wooten said his boys would have their work cut out against the premiership qualifying champions.
"They will be really tough to beat," he said, as the playoffs for berths in the middle tier kicked in at the New Zealand Secondary Schools' Basketball Tournament in Palmerston North.
Wooten said New Plymouth Boys' High and Palmerston North Boys' High schools were in the final four of the main competition so that was a "big feather" in the cap of this qualifying zone.
Yesterday, HBHS absorbed a rousing start after Melville stormed into a 19-6 lead in just five minutes of the first quarter.
"They shot our lights out," Wooten said, but lauded his boys' slow-but-sure approach to reel them back in to a 23-21 lead when the buzzer went for that spell.
It pleased him to see HBHS shoot at 59 per cent with captain Marcos Edwards leading the way with 16 points while Devante Miller, Sheldon Mataira and Latrell Ah Kiong chimed in with 14 each.
