College Sport: HBHS junior basketballers win national title

The Hastings Boys' High School team which won the national Junior A 3 x 3 basketball title last week. Photo/Supplied

Two sons of former Hawke's Bay NBL basketballers were in the Hastings Boys' High School team which won the Junior A title at the National Secondary Schools 3 x 3 tournament in Tauranga last week.

Tzar Smiler, a son of the former Hawks guard with the same name and Denim Tuala-Fata, a son of former Hawks forward Peleti Tuala-Fata, were joined by Rongo Maaka-Morrell, Rudy Ioasa, a son of 2006 Commonwealth Games Sevens gold medallist Tafai Ioasa and Tyler Mau in the Regan Spooner-coached side which won the title with an unbeaten run in 12 games.

Coach Spooner believes Smiler jnr and Tuala-Fata jnr both have the potential to be better players than their fathers were in future and he can't wait to see how the entire squad performs at senior level.

HBHS beat St Thomas of Canterbury College 17-15 in their final and Hamilton's Melville High School 21-11 in their semifinal on Friday. On Wednesday HBHS won all four of their games and on Thursday all six of their games.

For Tuala-Fata it was his first tournament after returning from a United States tour with the Swish Toki team last month during which they met New Zealand's most famous NBA star Steven Adams. All five of the HBHS players are Year 10 students and won't be eligible for the junior grade next year.

For former Hawks player Spooner it was his second national title as a coach as he and Shane Brown co-coached the Hawke's Bay 2017 under-15 boys team which won their national tournament.

The HBHS senior team finished 17th in their section of the tournament which attracted 125 boys and girls teams and also had a waiting list.

NBHS Tennis team finish third
The Simon Winter-coached Napier Boys' High School senior tennis team finished third at their Christchurch-hosted national tournament last week.

Dan Rowe, Luke Winter and Max Clifford made up the team for the tournament which was played at the newly completed Nga Puna Wai Sports Park. NBHS were seeded third and in a pool with Burnside High of Christchurch, St Paul's Collegiate of Hamilton, Lynfield College of Auckland and Timaru Boys' High School.

Burnside, St Paul's and Lynfield were beaten comfortably. Second seeds Timaru Boys had two S3 players in their line-up. An S2 ranked player, Rowe, had a good win at No 1.

An S5 ranked player, Winter, had a narrow loss to the other Timaru S3 ranked player before Rowe and Clifford won their doubles match to give NBHS top spot in their pool.

In the semifinal against Feilding High School Year 13 student Rowe had a straight sets win at No 1, Year 10 student Winter had a competitive loss against a stronger older opponent and Rowe and Clifford had a naibiting doubles loss in tricky, windy conditions.

In the playoff for third against St Paul's Clifford lost his singles in straight sets and Rowe won his in three sets before Rowe and Winter won their doubles in a super tiebreaker to secure the bronze medal.