Monthly Archives: February 2017

Feb 07 2017
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College Hoops, Kiwi's Abroad, Tall Blacks

Salt impresses, Webster in good company, Karena shines

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Jack Salt had zero points (not surprising as he didn’t put up any shots), 3 rebounds, a steal plus a couple of blocks as the University of Virginia Cavaliers comfortably beat Virginia Tech 71-48 on Thursday.

On the face of it those are not stunning numbers but post game Virginia coach Tony Bennett made a telling comment, “Jack (Salt) and Isaiah (Wilkins) are the ultimate team players….I have been blessed to have so many service orientated players. Jack and Isaiah have been good, so we’ve been getting good play when our frontline is in there.”

For those of us that have followed the career of Salt it comes as little surprise to hear Bennett endorsing the unselfish attitude of his sophomore centre. Throughout his school and age-group career Salt always displayed a team first philosophy and now it is being recognized at a premier basketball college (Virginia are ranked No 9 in the nation).

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Also playing at a premier school is Tai Webster and he became the 28th player in the school’s history to score 1,000 points for Nebraska in the 81-70 loss at Iowa on Sunday – Webster scored 14 points in that one.

 Webster had claimed a game high 18 points on Friday as the Huskers went down 72-61 against Michigan State. A small matter of 15,821 turned out at Pinnacle Bank Arena to not only see the Huskers but also to pay respect to Tyronn Lue (coach of the NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers) as he was in attendance to have his jersey retired.

Lue had a distinguished collegiate career at Nebraska before becoming a first-round NBA draft pick in 1998. Lue played three seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers and 11 seasons overall with seven franchises. A first-team All-Big 12 player, he won two NBA titles with the Lakers in 2000 and 2001, then guided the Cleveland Cavaliers to the 2016 NBA Championship.

Jarrod Kenny made 6 points and provided a team high 4 assists as the Perth Wildcats took a step closer to a play-off berth with a comfortable 94-63 victory against Brisbane Bullets on Friday night. Perth is aiming for a remarkable 31st consecutive appearance in the play-offs.

 In Spain Isaac Fotu scored 14 points and added 6 rebounds as Zaragoza improved to 7-12 for the season with a 102-99 victory in the Spanish League. Fotu made 5 from 8 from the field and 4 from 5 from the free throw line – collectively Zaragoza made an impressive 33 from 37 from the charity stripe.

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Mike Karena continued his good form notching 23 points (11/16FG) as Sammic ISB beat Albacete 90-83 to remain top of the LEB Silver standings, the Spanish second division, with a healthy 14-5 record. It’s the third 23 points haul of the season for the Canterbury Rams forward.

Feb 06 2017
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College Hoops, Kiwi's Abroad, Tall Ferns, WNBL, Womens Basketball

High scoring performances from a number of Tall Ferns

There were some outstanding performances by Tall Ferns overseas over the weekend including a couple of PB’s. In Australia Micaela Cocks equalled her career best to help keep Townsville on track for play-off action. Over in the States Stella Beck did record a career high whilst Penina Davidson and Kalani Purcell were outstanding for their respective colleges and in Italy Jillian Harmon helped her club Lucca stay top of the table.

American Colleges

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Penina Davidson produced one of her best performances of the season for the University of California Berkeley on Sunday as the Bears beat USC 63-56.

Neither team led by more than three points until Davidson gave the Bears a five-point cushion with 2:27 left in the game, converting a three-point play. Davidson, in a performance described on the Cal website as “electric” led her team with 17 points, two shy of her season best, and nine rebounds. With the win, the Bears improve to 5-7 in Pac-12 Conference play.

BYU bounced back from two straight losses to thump Portland 77-38 on Sunday. On Friday they had gone down 82-57 at West Coast Conference leaders Gonzaga but made no mistake in their third straight away game.

Kalani Purcell recorded her 13th double double of the season (13 points, 12 rebounds) and added a game high 7 assists for good measure. Cougars are now 8-4 in West Coast Conference play, one game back from St Mary’s in second spot

As reported yesterday Stella Beck produced a career best 28 points as St Mary’s Gaels beat San Diego 77-65 on Sunday. The performance was even more meritorious given Beck had not only missed the previous two games due to concussion but also had to be removed from the starting five as she incurred a mouth injury in the warm up.

“Stella Beck is an incredibly tough kid,” said Saint Mary’s head coach Paul Thomas. “Having her being out for the last couple games, and then in warm-ups gets hit, and then performing like that. She was just a leader today. I think that’s awesome. We need that.”

The Tall Ferns guard scored with 11 from 15 shots from the field and 6 from 9 free throws. She also garnered a team high 8 rebounds, as the Gaels remain second on the West Coast Conference ladder with a 9-3 record.

Seattle University Redhawks are 6-1 at the half way stage of Western Athletic Conference play. Jacinta Beckley scored 6 points as the Redhawks beat Utah Valley 69-51.

Australian WNBL

Micaela Cocks was in stunning form for the Townsville Fire as they convincingly defeated Dandenong Rangers 92-78. The combo guard scored a season best 25 points, which included 6 from 9 threes, and also pulled down 7 rebounds.

24 hours later, on Sunday, Townsville made it two from two on their Victorian road trip beating Bendigo Spirit 83-77. Cocks could only manage a couple of points in that one but the win, over the fifth place Spirit, virtually guaranteed the Fire a trip to the play-offs for a sixth straight season.

Perth Lynx are also play-offs bound after beating Canberra Capitals 84-72 on Sunday. Toni Edmondson scored 8 points for the Lynx.

WNBL standings with 2 rounds to play – teams play 24 regular season games and the top 4 qualify for the semi-finals.

Sydney University Flames 16-6, Dandenong Rangers 14-7, Perth Lynx 14-7, Townsville Fire 13-9, Bendigo Spirit 11-10, Canberra Capitals 11-10

Europe

Jillian Harmon continued her good form with a game high 17 points as Le Mura Lucca had little trouble in beating Broni 70-43 in Italian League action. The win means Lucca improved to 15-1 for the season and stay top of the Italian League table.

Feb 05 2017
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College Hoops, Kiwi's Abroad, Tall Ferns

Stella Beck rebounds from injuries in style

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Stella Beck produced a career best 28 points as St Mary’s University Gaels came from behind to beat San Diego 77-65 on Sunday. The performance was even more meritorious given Beck had not only missed the previous two games due to concussion but also had to be removed from the starting five as she incurred a mouth injury in the warm up.

“I hit my teeth together which knocked the crown off my front tooth – the crown is from a WBC tournament I broke my tooth at a few years ago. But it was all good with my mouth guard in and it’s fixed now,” explained Beck speaking exclusively to the Lowdown.

“It was a very good win for us considering they beat us on the buzzer last time.” That loss was early in the West Coast Conference campaign and the Gaels have only lost two of the subsequent 10 games.

“It was a very satisfying career best, it wouldn’t have meant anything if we had lost so I’m glad we gathered the momentum when we did and carried it through until the end.

“We are on a bit of a roll, the chemistry is good and much improved. We have some tough games to close the season but it is a good time for us to be playing our best because it will give us the confidence we need to see it through,” the Tall Ferns guard added.

“Stella Beck is an incredibly tough kid,” said Saint Mary’s head coach Paul Thomas. “Having her being out for the last couple games, and then in warm-ups gets hit, and then performing like that. She was just a leader today. I think that’s awesome. We need that.”

The former Hutt Valley guard scored with 11 from 15 shots from the field and 6 from 9 free throws. She also garnered a team high 8 rebounds, as the Gaels remain second on the West Coast Conference ladder with a 9-3 record.

Feb 02 2017
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Age Group NZ Teams

Busy year ahead for New Zealand age group teams

 
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Basketball New Zealand have opened 2017 by running age-group development camps and say that competition for selection is fierce with a noticeable increase of players and talent.

Chief Executive of Basketball New Zealand, Iain Potter, says with more Kiwis sinking their teeth into basketball, it’s not surprising that Basketball New Zealand’s junior development programmes are filled with future Division 1 scholarship players and talent that he is sure will feature on the world stages of Europe, U.S.A and Asia.

“We run talent camps that feed into our National Junior teams, which in turn are an important pathway for players with their eyes on Tall Black and Tall Fern jerseys. We’ve just gone through our second phase of National Age Group Selection Camps, which hosted close to 250 junior athletes who were invited to trial for the New Zealand under 16, Under 17 and Under 18 Boys and Girls junior teams,” says Potter.

“The purpose of the selection camps is to name wider squads for the first of a number of intensive preparation camps for the teams’ respective pinnacle events in 2017, which will put New Zealand teams on the stage of some impressive global stages, especially with FIBA entering New Zealand into the Asian Zone.”

Those stages are spread around the globe, beginning with Australia. The New Zealand Under 16 Boys and Girls teams will be competing at the Australian State Championships from 8-15 July in Perth. The New Zealand Select U16 Teams Boys and Girls teams, another development team, will compete at the Medibank National Junior Classic in Dandenong, Melbourne. Both are strongly fought for by Australian State teams and have had well-known alumni grace their events including Matthew Dellavedova (Milwaukee Bucks), Dante Exum, Joe Ingles (Utah Jazz), Patty Mills (San Antonio Spurs), Ben Simmons (Philadelphia 76ers).

Moving further into Asia and the New Zealand Under 17 Boys and Girls teams will compete at the FIBA Asian Championships – the girls event will be held in October in Chennai, India. The hosts for the boys’ event are yet to be announced.

The New Zealand Under 18 Boys and Girls teams will compete at the FIBA Men’s Oceania Championships from 9-16 July in Guam.

For the members of these younger teams, they also have their sights set on a place in the Junior Tall Blacks and Junior Tall Ferns. The honour of that selection seems all the more prestigious after a herculean effort to knock over the vastly-favoured Australian side out of the Oceania Championships last December, and so the New Zealand Junior Tall Blacks have qualified to compete at the FIBA World U19 Men’s Championships this coming July in Cairo, Egypt.

“Our young players are capturing the global basketball community’s eye and proving themselves to be worthy of respect,” says Potter.

“We are continuing to foster this evolution of talent. Despite minimal high performance funding for a big sport like ours, we are blessed with coaches and support staff throughout the country who love the game and devote themselves to helping our juniors. These junior players’ parents sacrifice a lot of time and money to give their kids an opportunity to compete on the world stage. Also local associations around the country work tirelessly to give junior platers opportunities to develop their skills to meet the expectations of national squad selectors.”

A lot of the that devotion to talent is recognised at the National Development Camps where Mr Potter says it’s not just athletic ability that’s tested, but there is a strong focus on how players conduct themselves off the court.

“At the talent camps we look at how we can best support these young athletes. This year we offered a number of strength and conditioning, injury prevention, and social awareness workshops. We brought in the social awareness aspects by working with the Ministry of Social Development and the ‘Are you that someone?’ campaign and the ‘It’s Not OK’ campaign to discuss sexual and family violence. It’s modules like these that focus our players attention on how they should conduct themselves in situations that could confront them as sporting stars, and to think about their role as leaders in their communities back home. So not only do we want to educate and create awareness of the demands on a national athlete in international competition, but we also preach the responsibilities they have off the court.”

Feb 01 2017
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College Hoops, Kiwi's Abroad, Tall Blacks

Webster continues to shine plus news on other TB’s overseas

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The Nebraska Huskers broke a five game losing streak with a hard earned 83-80 victory against No 20 Purdue on Sunday. Nebraska began Big Ten Conference play with a hiss and a roar winning three straight games so will be relieved to get back in the winners circle.

Since that opening salvo, despite Tai Webster’s outstanding form, they had been unable to claim another W until Sunday. Webster made 15 points and added 8 rebounds and 6 assists as the Huskers improve to 4-5 in Big Ten action.

On Thursday Webster posted a game high 23 points for the Huskers, his eighth 20-point game of the season, as they went down 73-61 against Northwestern.

Jack Salt had 4 points and 3 rebounds for Virginia Cavaliers in a high octane Atlantic Coast Conference encounter. Unfortunately for Salt No12 Virginia fell to No. 1 Villanova 61-59 to a buzzer-beater tip-in. The Cavs are now 6-3 in Conference games.

Sacramento State improved to 4-4 in the Big Sky Conference after recording an 80-77 overtime win against Portland State. Izayah Le’Afa contributed 5 points, 3 rebounds, a pair of assists and a steal for the Hornets.

 

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Reuben Te Rangi is punching above his weight for the Brisbane Bullets at present. Due to an injury crisis at the Bullets Te Rangi is having to play a lot of minutes in the power forward spot and is making a pretty good fist of it. He played 19 minutes in the 80-77 loss against Sydney Kings on Friday scoring 6 points without missing a shot – 2/2FG and 2/2FT’s.

Jarrod Kenny made a couple of key plays as the Perth Wildcats point guard kept their play-off hopes alive with a narrow victory against Melbourne United.

 

 In Spain Zaragoza’s slide down the Liga Endesa table continued as they lost 81-77 at Bilbao. Zaragoza (6-12) are now 13th on the 17 team ladder.

Isaac Fotu received the Best Sixth Man award from Gigantes del Basket a leading basketball publication in Spain. The Tall Blacks forward, in his third season in the Liga Endesa and his second season with Zaragoza scored 4 points and garnered 7 rebounds against Bilbao.

Fellow Tall Blacks forward Mike Karena scored 12 points as Sammic ISB cruised to a 93-57 win against Navarra in the Spanish second tier competition. Sammic, with a 13-5 record, now head the LEB Silver standings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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