Rangitoto College returned to winning ways in Round 11 of the Auckland Secondary Schools Boy’s Premier League competition on Friday night.
Zach Riley duplicated his recent outstanding NBL form with the Auckland Huskies as Rangitoto College put one hand on the Premier League regular season title with an 82-61 home win against St Kentigern College.
Riley finished with 26 points as Rangi erased the memories of last week’s loss at Auckland Grammar.
After a tight first half, that had the scores level (29-29) at the main break, Rangi broke the game open with a dominant third period.
Riley, Zeke Priest, Zoran Sladoja and Lucas Payne all converted from the land of plenty as Rangi scored plenty – thirty in fact to the visitors 16.
Rangitoto continued to pull away in the fourth despite a late scoring flourish from Kaea Rangihaeta.
Dontae Russo-Nance (24 points) top scored for Str Kent’s against his former school, with George Turner lending good support. However Rangi, with the trio of Riley, Payne and Priest in good form, were too good on the night.
The result means there is a three-way tie in second place on the league table with St Kent’s, Westlake and Auckland Grammar each having an 8-3 record with 3 rounds to play.
Rangitoto 82 – Riley 26, Payne 22, Priest 19, Zoran Sladoja 8
St Kentigern 61 – Russo-Nance 24, Turner 16, Kaea Rangihaeta 12
Rosmini College kept their top-four hopes alive with a solid 92-67 home win against Mt Albert Grammar School
However when Phoenix Sorensen converted a pair of free-throws early in the third quarter to give MAGS a 36-35 lead things were looking promising for the visitors.
Unfortunately for MAGS they found themselves outscored 30-10 in the remaining seven minutes of the third to trail 65-46 at the last break.
Tom Beattie was the chief destroyer, the Rozza guard scoring 18 of his game high 36 points in that third period and with Pita Maxwell-Topia and Jett Marshall joining in the scoring frenzy the hosts were on a roll.
Victor Keil did his best to change the momentum with 6 quick points at the start of the fourth but triples from Lucas Schnuriger, Kane Murphy, Marshall and Beattie kept MAGS at bay.
Early on Morgan Aiono, Sorensen and Keil were causing Rosmini a few problems in a first half the home side edged 33-27.
Ben Skelton, Kuresa Tapula’aia and Keil combined to give MAGS the lead just after half-time but it was short lived as Beattie and Co bossed proceedings from then on.
Rosmini 92 – Beattie 36, Maxwell-Topia 14, Marshall 12, Drury 11, Kane Murphy 9
MAGS 67 – Sorensen 14, Keil 14, Aiono 9, Aki Luamanuvae-Su’a 7
Westlake Boys rattled up 38 first quarter points to take control of the home tie with Liston College, eventually winning 124-49.
Eight different scorers contributed to those 38 points – 7 to Boston Caldwell who went on to score a massive 43 points.
Christian Martin helped himself to 8 points in the second spell as Westlake hit the 70 mark by the interval.
Taonaishe Chataira and Rasheed Tahiru each made double figures for Liston on a night when points were hard to come by for the visitors.
Westlake 124 – Caldwell 43, Martin 20, Hamza Zahran 15, Tawhiao Kaitapu 10, Rocco Chang 8, Hadi Alshami 8
Liston 49 – Taonaishe Chataira 15, Rasheed Tahiru 12, Deon Helu 7, Dominic O’Grady 6
In form Auckland Grammar School, with skipper Luka Vea posting 30 points, dominated St Peter’s from the outset to win 112-61.
Vea had 9 points in the opening 25-10 salvo and it was 54-23 by half-time as Josh Muggleston, Caleb Landon and Cody Brown took over the scoring mantle.
Scott Errey, Jack Donnelly and Dorian Sula made valuable contributions as St Peter’s found scoring a touch easier after the break but the result was never in doubt after the captain’s opening knock.
St Peter’s 61 – Scott Errey 23, Jack Donnelly 16, Dorian Sula 9, Andrei Manio 6
AGS 113 – Vea 30, Muggleston 24, Landon 19, Brown 14, Toby Caldwell 9
Boys Premier League Standings
10-1 Rangitoto
8-3 Westlake, AGS, St Kentigern
6-5 Rosmini
3-8 MAGS
1-10 St Peter’s
0-11 Liston
LACEY LOWDOWN 