Reihana Maxwell-Topia has this week headed to the USA on a 4-year basketball scholarship.
Reihana will be a student athlete at the University of St Francis, Illinois. He was recruited by Head Coach Ryan Marks now in his eighth season at the helm of the Fighting Saints.
Coach Marks boasts a 114-76 record during his previous seven seasons, the Fighting Saints twice being Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season champions in addition to being Tournament Champions (2018—19) under his watch.
Reihana played on the Rosmini Premier team for four consecutive years and was an integral part of the team that won back to back New Zealand Secondary Schools National Championships in 2017 and 2018. Rosmini were runners-up in 2019 with the rangy power forward scoring 15 points in the Grand Final and also named to the Tournament Team.
He is a multiple representative championship winner having also won an U15 National Title representing Hibiscus Coast and in 2019 the U19 National Title with North Harbour.
2019 was a busy year for Reihana – in April he played a pivotal role in helping Rosmini finish a highly creditable sixth at the ISF Basketball World Schools Championship in Greece.
In July he was a member of the Harbour U19 team that travelled to the USA to participate in tournaments in Phoenix and Dallas and capped off his globe-trotting year representing New Zealand at the FIBA U17 Oceania Championships in New Caledonia where the team claimed a silver medal.
He is the fourth Rosminian currently on a basketball scholarship in the States. Marvin Williams-Dunn is a fellow freshman at Ouachita Baptist University, Arkansas whilst William Heather (Dallas Baptist University) and Kruz Perrott-Hunt (University of South Dakota) are both sophomores.
All at Rosmini College and the wider New Zealand basketball community wish Reihana well on the next stage of his journey.
LACEY LOWDOWN 