Westlake Boys High maintained an unbeaten start to their Prems season with a keenly fought 78-71 road win at Mount Albert Grammar School on Monday night. Hamza Zahran’s game high 21 points paced the Westlake effort with Rocco Chang (18 points) and Daniel Ottenhoff (14 points) providing valuable support.
Originally scheduled for Round 3 the re-arranged contest was decided either side of three-quarter time.
Westlake closed out the third period with a 10-2 run to lead 60-57 at the last break. With Luke Don landing consecutive triples they then opened the final 10 minutes with a 12-3 run, to lead by 12 (72-60), a lead that proved too difficult to overcome for the hosts.
Will Leger, and the Dante’s – Matakatea and Tapula’ala – did make some inroads narrowing the deficit to 7 points late in the fourth – Rocco Chang and Daniel Ottenhoff ensured it got no closer.
The two teams had gone toe for toe in the first twenty-five minutes, neither side able to wrestle the advantage. Victor Keil and Kade Cartwright went back-to-back-to-back with triples to end the first half but 15 first half points from Zahran endured Westlake held a narrow 37-35 interval lead.
Consecutive scores from Harri Coker-Gray were cancelled out by a pair of long threes from Chang. Coker-Gray also produced the loudest cheers of the night, from the large home crowd, for an athletic defensive block. However, Mikal Maiquez quietened the local support with a triple and that decisive Lake run was underway.
Dante Matakatea, ahead of his trip to Doha with the New Zealand U17 National team, tallied a nice stat line of 13 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a block. NZ open their Asia Cup campaign against Kazakhstan on Sunday June 12. Go well Dante!
MAGS 71 – Keil 16, Coker-Grey 15, Cartwright 13, Matakatea 13/10rebs/, Leger 8/16rebs
Westlake 78 – Zahran 21, Chang 18, Ottenhoff 14, Don 7. Maiquez 5
Standings after 4 Rounds:
4-0 Rosmini, Westlake
2-1AGS, Rangitoto
2-2 St Kentigern, MAGS
0-4 Liston, Sacred Heart
*The Rangitoto v AGS game will be played later in June.
LACEY LOWDOWN 