The Auckland Secondary Schools Senior A semi-finals at North Shore Events Centre on Friday night were, in three of the four cases, comfortably won by the higher ranked teams.
In the Girls competition St Mary’s College and St Kentigern College easily won through to next Friday’s final.
In the Boys grade it is St Peter’s College and Avondale College that will clash at the North Shore Events Centre on Friday.
The Avondale College versus Liston College Boy’s semi-final was the exception. Whilst Avondale was in control for the majority of the game Liston, led by Dru-leo Leusogi (20 points) and Tyronne McClennan (21 points), were competitive throughout before eventually going down 97-87.
The Doe Williams coached Avondale side leaned heavily on Kennedy Nikolaison who paced the team with a game high 34 points.
Nikolaison was well supported by Jaga Mete (19 points) and Jack Childs (15 points).
Avondale 97 – Nikolaison34, Mete 19, Childs 15, Toyer 9, Donaldson 8
Liston 87 – McClennan 21, Leusogi 20, Prokofyev 13, Fabian 12, Maagdenberg 8
St Peter’s College, urged on by a bus load of travelling fans, were quickly into their stride against Northcote College – a pair of Phoenix Leupolu treys helping them to a 29-18 quarter time advantage.
Miggey Falqueza rattled off 8 straight points as Northcote got things going in the second to narrow to within 5 points.
However a decisive run from St Peter’s, fuelled by Finlay Morris and Christian Fromont, took the lead out to 45-28.
As usual Northcote captain Sam Hadley was at the heart of the Northcote effort but his team were in a spot of bother at half-time trailing 54-41.
Leupolu landed his fourth triple of the game and when Joseph Dickey, much to the delight of team bench, scored with an off balance left handed drive the St Peter’s lead was out to 20 points 70-50 with four minutesto play in third.
The impressive Gerard Boersen – the game’s leading scorer with 29 points – chipped in with half a dozen third quarter points as the lead increased to 82-58 at three-quarter time.
Northcote guard Jack Burton kept asking questions of the St Kent’s defence but more problems were being posed at the other end of the court as Boersen created his own shot or dished for others to score.
Expect even more Saints support on Friday for the grand-final clash with Avondale.
St Peter’s 100 – Boersen 29, Fromont 21, Morris 16, Leupolu 14
Northcote 65 – Falqueza 21, Hadley 14, Burton 14, Hayward 7
In the Girl’s Grade semi-final St Kentigern College moved to a useful 20-14 first quarter lead against Epsom Girls with Courtney Griffiths and Summer-Jean Motufoua scoring all but three of the St Kent’s points.
Aria Todd-Pemerika scored 10 first half points for Epsom but St Kent’s, still led at the interval 38-29.
St Kent’s, paced by Motufoua (33 points), took the game away from Epsom in the third winning the frame 27-10. Kayla Robertson-Tekil got in on the scoring action, as did Aimee Johnson, as St Kent’s stretched the advantage to a game winning 65-39 at the third break.
Todd-Pemerika, Florence Dallow and Siniva Setoga kept plugging away but a majot Epsom revival didn’t eventuate – St Kent’s advancing to a showdown with St Mary’s on Friday.
St Kentigern 82 – Motufoua 33, Griffiths 18, Robertson-Tekil 12, Leishman 9, Johnson 7
Epsom 60 – Todd-Pemerika 17, Dallow 9, Benitez 7, Scouler 6
In the second Girl’s semi-final St Mary’s College proved much too strong for Birkenhead College winning 98-64 with Tyla Tevaga (26 points) in red hot shooting form.
A first quarter scoring burst from St Mary’s took them out to a significant 33-15 first quarter lead. Tevaga connected with three triples in the period before going on to land a school record eight treys on the night.
The second period was a much more even contest as Rashan Smith (29 points) and Rieko Tui’inukuafe led a spirited Birkenhead response – 55-35 at half-time.
Smith rattled in 11 consecutive points for Birkenhead at the start of the second half.
However Jazz Kailahi-Fulu scored the first six points in the quarter for St Mary’s and Safenunuivao Te Nana-Williams the last six as they thwarted any thoughts of a Birkenhead revival – 73-52 at three-quarter time.
Tevaga kept up her record of landing triples in every quarter by landing a couple in the fourth. Jazz Kailahi-Fulu joined in the fun by also landing from beyond the arc to cap a decisive victory and a place in the final against St Kent’s on Friday.
St Mary’s 98 – Tevaga 26, J Kailahi-Fulu 15, S Te Nana-Williams 13, Matiseni 12, L Te Nana-Williams 10, Z Kailahi-Fulu 10
Birkenhead 64 – Smith 29, Tui’inukuafe 11, B Marshall 8, Kashkari 6
LACEY LOWDOWN 