With one round of the Auckland Secondary Schools Girls Premier Grade regular season to play, the top four placing’s are still not decided and neither is the wooden spoon.
Massey High and Rangitoto College will both go into the final game with their semi-final hopes still alive and Westlake Girls and Mt Albert Grammar will enter the last fixture with the runners-up place still to play for.
The one certainty is that Auckland Girls Grammar School, after recording win number thirteen, are one victory away from a regular season clean sweep. They proved far too good for Carmel College winning a one-sided game 99-14.
Mele Latu and Eliana Tuaiti were the main architects of the AGGS win. Latu (34 points) demonstrated her all-round ability with six threes to compliment her inside game and Tuaiti constantly found teammates in open space for easy baskets as well as scoring 27 points herself.
They will face a more serious examination when they play MAGS on Friday whilst Carmel will have to re-group for a bottom of the table clash against St Kentigern.
AGGS 99 – M Latu 34, E Tuaiti 27, H Blakey 19, L Tuaiti 10
Carmel 14 – E Broomfield 4
Shauna Povey scored a game high 21 points on her return from New Zealand U18 international duty but it wasn’t enough to prevent Massey High School going down 83-61 at home to Westlake Girls.
Westlake, with five players in double figures, chalked up their tenth win of the season ahead of the North Shore derby with Rangitoto College next Friday.
Emme Shearer helped Westlake to an 18-10 opening lead and threes from Tabitha Leyson and Jess Moors increased the advantage to a significant 38-20 at half-time.
Triples from Laticia Jost and Ramona Fuiavaa increased the Massey scoring rate but Westlake were in no mood to relinquish the initiative leading 59-38 with a quarter to play.
Povey and Maya Taingahue shared 18 points in the last period but Rosie Dil and Piper Manolas bettered that tally as they accumulated a collective 20 points to steer Westlake to victory.
Massey 61 – S Povey 21, M Taingahue 13, Y Tevao 8
Westlake 83 – E Shearer 16, R Dil 15, T Leyson 14, J Moors 14, P Manolas 12
Another player that had been with the New Zealand team at the U17 World Cup in Belarus was Sharne Pupuke-Robati and she scored 19 points to compliment a season high 21 points from Moanekah Va’ai as Mt Albert Grammar School beat St Mary’s College 74-58.
Half a dozen first quarter points from Zaaliyah Kailahi-Fulu and Leata Te Nana-Williams helped St Mary’s edge the opening ten minutes 17-15 but MAGS dominated the second period to lead 40-26 at half-time.
A triple from Va’ai and multiple scores from Tessa Talo-Tomokino and Pupuke-Robati established that advantage.
Riana Matiseni, Daneka Manese and Kailahi-Fulu reduced the MAGS lead in the third period – St Mary’s trailing 53-46 at three-quarter time.
MAGS re-established control in the fourth, a pair of late threes from Va’ai sealing a tenth win of the season ahead of the match up with rivals Auckland Girls Grammar next Friday.
MAGS 74 – M Va’ai 21, S Pupuke-Robati 19, T Talo-Tomokino 13, M Kelly 12
St Mary’s 58 –18, S Te Nana-Williams 9, L Te Nana-Williams 8, R Matiseni 8
Rangitoto College were well served by the trio of Bella Elgar, Gracie Hasler-Ewins and Hannah Wentworth as they beat St Kentigern College 62-53 to keep their top four aspirations alive.
St Kentigern’s Tash Leishman was to the fore early on but Elgar scored 11 first quarter points as Rangitoto built a 21-13 lead.
Wentworth continued the Rangitoto scoring momentum in the second period as the hosts led 33-20 at half-time.
St Kent’s reduced the deficit in the third period with Khanye-Lii Munro-Nonoa and Leishman cutting the lead to ten points (46-36).
Misaki Chen scored a triple to lift St Kent’s comeback chances but Rangitoto closed out their sixth win of the season with Wentworth making a couple of telling threes late in the fourth quarter to seal the deal.
Rangitoto 62 – H Wentworth 17, I Elgar 17, G Hasler-Ewins 9, M Spooner 6
St Kentigern 53 – N Leishman 16, M Chen 11, K Munro-Nonoa 8, R Flay 7,
Premier Standings
13-0 AGGS
10-3 MAGS, Westlake
6-7 Massey, Rangitoto
3-9 St Mary’s
2-11 Carmel
1-11 St Kentigern
LACEY LOWDOWN 