Finals day across Men's A, Women's A, and Premier, starts this morning at 10am.
The Men's Premier semi-finals will be on Courts 1 and 2 at 12pm, with the final on Court 1 at 3pm.
The first indication of the Premier favourites was the Junior Tall Blacks holding on for a 67-64 victory over title contenders Choppers in a physical clash on Saturday morning.
In a tough pool, which also included NZ Kauri, the Choppers, with the likes of giant Casey Frank, had a height advantage, although Tai Wynyard and Sam Timmons could match them for the Juniors.
As the official New Zealand squad, coach Judd Flavell was also able to orchestrate entire shift changes and keep bringing on a fresh lineup of players, whereas Choppers naturally gave their go-to men like Frank, Lindsay Tait and Aaron Nowell most of the court time.
Whereas Flavell was glued to the sideline sending out instructions, the Choppers knew when to conserve energy and when to have a dig, often happy to fire the long passes, and led 21-10 early with Tait in control.
The Juniors closed that gap to 23-18 at quarter-time and then took the lead 31-30 midway through the second period, with Nikau McCullough leading from the front as pace took on guile.
Smart passing chains had Choppers heading into the break having regained the lead, but a three pointer right on the buzzer increased the youngsters' confidence at 38-38.
Continuing to return possessions up court with pace, the Juniors went right at the Choppers, who were none too pleased at the foul calls against them when contact was made, as McCullough and Matthew Freeman were able to take five key free throws right at three quarter time for a 53-48 advantage.
The lead changed hands with nearly every possession midway through the final quarter, the highlight being a Frank dunk, while the Juniors missed another couple of free throws.
Calling a timeout with 58 seconds left at 65-64 to Choppers, Flavell discussed the last throw of the dice for his team and they responded with a three pointer.
Choppers called their own time out with 17 seconds left, but a rush by Tait, Daryl Cartwright and Frank was not enough to get the equalising bucket.
The key matchup in Group 1 was between Hawke's Bay's Rack City and Palmerston North's Thats Us on Saturday morning, yet surprisingly it was dominated 67-54 by the Manawatu team, who are led by Matt Te Huna and Sid Adams, the respective relatives of UFC fighter James Te Huna and Kiwi NBA star Steven Adams.
In a game where it was not easy to go straight to the hole, Rack City were off with a lot of first-quarter shots, whereas Te Huna caught fire with a hat-trick of three-pointers and a long two in traffic, helping his team to a 19-14 advantage at quarter-time, which they then extended to a 24-14 in the second period and ultimately never looked back.
Adams looked the most likely to secure the offensive rebounds, while across the court Rack City's playmakers Aidan Daly, Thomas Bartlett and big Kareem Johnson were not able to turn the tide, down 36-24 at the half.
Neither team would consider the third quarter anything to write home about.
Derek Albertson and Te Huna tried some out-of-the-box passing but the ball was spilled, while Johnson nailed a good hook shot but missed the foul he drew.
From 47-37 down at three-quarter time, Rack City did start hitting some threes to bring the score back to 53-49, but Adams got up to block their charges to the hole, late in the piece hitting his own dunk, while Te Huna, Albertson and Paul Bristol and all attacked the hole and drew the fouls to give them points and eat up some time.
