LACEY LOWDOWN

Ahead of Thanksgiving celebrations there was plenty of success for our Tall Ferns and Tall Blacks playing college basketball in the States.

It is difficult to pick out a single standout performance but perhaps the double-double from Penina Davidson shades the efforts of another Rangitoto alumni Brooke Blair.

Davidson completed her second-double of the season as she collected a dozen rebounds to accompany 15 points as Cal Berkeley Bears accounted for Brown University 89-79.

Blair had a nice double dose of scoring as Idaho State Bengals mauled College of Idaho 89-32 and followed up by beating University of California Irvine 78-72. Blair scored 14 points in the College of Idaho saunter and 17 against Irvine – four straight wins for the Bengals and four straight double digit outings for the 2016 Tall Fern.

Stella Beck is just 3 points shy of 1,000 career points for St Mary’s Gaels after scoring 10 points in the comfortable 82-64 win against Cal Poly Mustangs.

Jacinta Beckley, made a crucial free throw in the dying seconds in Seattle Redhawks 65-62 win against Pepperdine. Beckley scored 9 points and pulled down 4 rebounds as Seattle improved to 2-2.

Cantabrian Tessa Boagni and Cal State Northridge are doing it tough at the moment slipping to 0-4 in the opening quartet of games. Boagni is certainly doing her bit to get the Matadors across the line coming up with 6 blocks and 14 points in the narrow 58-50 loss against New Orleans.

Krystal Leger-Walker was again dropping plenty of dimes coming up with 7 assists as University of Northern Colorado Bears defeated LSU 58-50. The combo guard followed that with a further 5 assists (plus 5 points and 7 rebounds) in the 73-60 win against San Francisco as the Bears improved to 4-0.

In addition to scoring 8 points Katelin Noyer snared 7 rebounds, including 4 at the offensive end, but Fresno State Bulldogs slipped to a 68-56 loss against UC Riverside.

Amongst players not yet capped at full international level Shalae Salmon takes the plaudits this week.

Salmon isn’t a Tall Fern yet but the new Tall Ferns coach (when appointed) will surely take a look at the BYU Provo centre out of Porirua. Salmon has played a major part in BYU’s start to the season averaging an impressive 9 points, 14.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks across the three games.

 It was reasonably quiet on the men’s front with Sam Timmins the best performer this week.

Timmins came up with 3 blocks to go with 8 rebounds and 6 points in Washington Huskies 77-70 loss to Providence in New York.

Izayah Le’afa played 25 minutes off the bench for Sacramento State Hornets contributing 2 points, 2 rebounds and a steal in the 69-56 loss at San Francisco.

 Jack Salt to go with 4 points and 4 rebounds as Virginia Cavaliers win at state rivals Virginia Commonwealth 76-67.

None of the above players were considered for Tall Blacks duty this week due to their college commitments.