Orewa College beat Avondale College 74-41 in round 12 of the Auckland Secondary Schools Premier grade competition consigning Avondale to relegation from the top grade.
Despite the win Orewa will likely join Avondale in having to work their way through the Premier qualifying tournament early next year unless they win their remaining two games.
Seven first quarter points from Janke Pretorius propelled Orewa to an 11-8 first quarter advantage extended to 32-17 at half time as Arianna Henare and Hannah Wentworth went to work – Maclani Michael scored ten first half points for Avondale.
Orewa put the game out of reach in the third amassing 28 points helped by triples from Pretorius and Megan Hoare plus 8 points from Wentworth – 60-28 at three-quarter time.
Maria Whiu scored for Avondale before but Pretorius, with a couple of left handed drives, restored a thirty points advantage for Orewa in the fourth.
The athletic Michael scored a deft basket in traffic and Grace Nweke demonstrated some shot blocking and rebounding prowess before Wentworth bedded the Orewa win with a triple.
Orewa 74 – Pretorius 21, Wentworth 17, Henare 13
Avondale 41 – Michael 16, Whiu 10, Lemisio 6
Westlake Girls and Massey High held an identical 7-4 record heading into their top four clash at Massey.
Westlake had won the earlier encounter between the two teams last term and it was a repeat of that result on Friday as the visitors again prevailed winning 74-63.
Shauna Povey and Ramona Fuaivaa converted early threes but Westlake were given a flying start by Keeley Tini, Emme Shearer and Jordyn Maddix – the three NZ internationals scoring all of Lake’s points as they opened a 30-21 first quarter lead.
Mareta Davidson became the fourth Westlake scorer in the second but a balanced Massey scoring effort trimmed the Westlake advantage to 41-40 at the break.
A couple of Maddix triples widened the margin and although Terina Aratangi landed a late third quarter trey for the hosts they trailed 59-51 with 10 minutes to play.
Kataleena Leslie scored six final quarter points for Massey but Shearer, the game’s leading scorer, bettered that with a dozen of her own to guide Westake to the win and with it third spot on the ladder.
Massey 63 – Povey 16, Leslie 13, Fuaivaa 10, Aratangi 8
Westlake 74 – Shearer 27, Tini 24, Maddix 15
Mt Albert Grammar kept abreast of AGGS at the top of the table after registering a comfortable 112-67 victory at Carmel College.
Mt Albert began brightly chalking up a 30-16 first quarter lead – unusually eight different players registered at least one basket in the opening period – Tessa Talo-Tomokino leading the charge with 8 points.
Carmel fought back in the second, led by 10 points from Tayla Dalton, to shade the quarter 20-18, trailing 48-36 at the break.
Any prospects of the MAGS lead being further eroded were quickly dismissed as the hosts won the third frame 30-9 before cruising home in a high scoring fourth period (34-23).
Talo-Tomokino and Trinity Paeu each scored double figures in the third and with Rikki Fiatau joining that pair with a twenty points haul the result was never in doubt.
The free scoring Dalton finished with 27 points for Carmel backed by Emily Broomfield and Georgia Green who both made double figure contributions.
MAGS 112 – Paeu 34, Talo-Tomokino 27, Fiatau 20, Manase 9
Carmel 67 – Dalton 27, Broomfield 11, Green 10, Cattermole 8
Information from the Auckland Girls Grammar School encounter with Rangitoto College is sketchy although I can report AGGS were dominant winning 94-55.
A 22-11 quarter time lead was doubled by half-time (42-22) with Grammar only giving up a further 11 points in the third as they eased to an eleventh win of the season.
Kaitlin Burgess scored 18 points for Rangi with Ella Moore and Centaine Noon-Duckworth adding 11 points each. Unfortunately I don’t have the individual scorers for Grammar.
However I can report with a degree of certainty that Mt Albert entertain Auckland next Friday (August 11th) – the winners will claim the regular season title.
Girls Premier Grade Standings
11-1 AGGS, Mt Albert
8-4 Westlake
7-5 Massey
5-7 Rangitoto
3-9 Carmel, Orewa
0-12 Avondale
LACEY LOWDOWN 