St Kentigern College demonstrated that they will be a championship contender this season as the second round of the Auckland Secondary Schools Premier Boys competition produced wins for Westlake Boys, Rangitoto College and Liston College as well as the men from East Auckland.
St Kentigern, paced by the back court duo of Alex McNaught and Kazlo Evans, made the better start with a 25-18 first quarter effort in front of another full house at the Tom Gerrard Gymnasium.
Suffocating defence from the visitors stifled the Rosmini offence that could only muster 30 points in the opening half. In contrast the inside presence of Levic Kerr, penetrative drives of Shalom Broughton and perimeter shooting of McNaught and Evans constantly found holes in the hosts defence – St Kent’s ahead 51-32 at the interval.
Josh Child helped stretch the lead to thirty in the third before Sean Murphy and Marvin Williams-Dunn led a Rozza mini revival – St Kent’s still 73-51 to the good at the last break.
The Rosmini revival, on the back of some full court pressure, gathered further momentum in the final stanza as the St Kentigern guards were forced into several errors. Williams-Dunn knocked down back to back threes, Terrence Abdon also scored on consecutive plays and Taine Murray got in on the scoring action but Broughton and Child did enough to ensure Rosmini didn’t get too close as St Kent’s secured a deserved victory.
Rosmini College 86– Williams-Dunn 28, Murray 18, Murphy 16, Reihana Maxwell-Topia 10
St Kentigern College 96– Broughton 27, Kerr 18, Evans 17, McNaught 16
Jaga Mete produced the highest individual scoring performance of the season to date but his 41 points were not quite enough to see Auckland Grammar across the line as they suffered a 93-84 home defeat against Westlake Boys.
Eight early points from Grammar point guard Connor Ngan were eclipsed by Josh Kooiman who made 14 points as Westlake forged a 31-23 lead.
Mete and Cody Brown wrestled control back for Grammar in the second as the hosts carved out a narrow 47-44 advantage.
The two teams went toe to toe in the third – six points from Cam Atkinson helping Westlake tie the game at 63 points apiece with ten minutes to play.
Despite Junior Tall Black forward Sam Mennenga being sidelined with a rolled ankle for all but the opening five minutes Westlake finished the stronger putting on 30 points in the closing quarter.
Kooiman took his made threes to six – Jett Thompson and Dylan Wilkie also landed from beyond the arc – and with Joe Wuthrich making important buckets Lake were able to hold off Mete and Toby Caldwell down the stretch.
Auckland Grammar 84– Mete 41, Ngan 12, Langdon 8
Westlake Boys 93– Kooiman 22, Atkinson 19, Wilkie 15, Wuthrich 12
The shooting of Desmond Helu was the difference between the teams as Liston College won 70-59 at Mt Albert Grammar School. Helu scored 33 points – a shooting performance that contained seven triples including three in the decisive last quarter.
It looked promising early on for MAGS as they built a 19-6 early lead and 33-22 at half time as Josh Leger, Nate Wilson and Dakota Stephens posted regular scores.
Momentum changed after the break as MAGS were outscored 18-6 in the third with George Peyroux and Helu doing most the damage as Liston edged ahead 40-39 at the three-quarter mark.
Buckets from Peyroux and Wilson gave MAGS encouragement but it was the blitz from beyond the arc from Helu aided by scores from Karatau and Victor Ola’aiga that earned Liston the win.
Mt Albert Grammar 59– Leger 16, Wilson 14, Peyroux 9
Liston College 70– Helu 33, Karatau 13, Kiani Saxon 9
Rangitoto College pretty much settled the tie at Macleans College in the first quarter racing to a commanding 38-6 advantage with nine Rangi players getting on the scoresheet in that opening spell.
Harry Smith scored ten first half points for Macleans and Michael Barbaran chipped in with a couple of baskets but Rangi were totally dominant leading 61-18 at half-time.
Daniel Powell had a good night for Rangi pumping in a premier high 26 points on the back of 5 made threes from 6 attempts. He was well supported by Harry Payne, Liam Judd, Jared Thornton and the Ethan’s – Mandeno and Skelton – who all scored in double figures as Rangitoto won every quarter.
Smith and Tyson Kempton were the double-digit scorers for the hosts but the boys from the Bays have made a flying start to the season with two big wins.
Macleans College 52– Smith 19, Kempton 10, Barbaran 9
Rangitoto College 116– Powell 26, Payne 18, Judd 16, Thornton 12
LACEY LOWDOWN 
to the College. In his four years as Headmaster, he led major initiatives in pastoral care and information technology. Major landscaping changes enabled the development of the exceptionally designed Saint Kentigern Old Boy’s Sports Centre as well as a range of new sports fields, and opened the way for the possibility of girls’ education at Saint Kentigern in its second half-century.