24 June, 2023
There was a mass exodus from the North Shore on Friday evening as all three Harbour schools ventured south for Auckland Secondary Schools Boy’s Premier Grade Round 9 fixtures. It was almost a clean sweep for the city dwellers as after Mt Albert Grammar and Auckland Grammar recorded victories St Peter’s were only pipped by Rosmini College in the closing 90 seconds.
In the other game St Kentigern College proved too strong for Sacred Heart College winning 96-80.
St Peter’s College are still searching for their first win of the season but paced by the ever reliable Gus Dallow came within a whisker of upsetting last season’s champions.
Dallow had 10 points in the opening frame although 8 points from Jameer Reed steered Rosmini to a narrow 18-17 advantage.
More points from the influential Reed and threes from Josh Batty and Harlan Roudon propelled the visitors to a 38-31 half-time lead.
The third quarter was all St Peters as they turned the seven points deficit into a four point advantage (57-53). Dallow was in the thick of the action and found scoring allies in Spencer Carr and Bailey Smith as the hosts grabbed the initiative.
A Carr triple excited the home support before Chris and Josh Wyllie landed some counter punches.
Dallow and Smith looked capable of carrying St Peter’s to victory but it was seven consecutive points from Chris Wyllie and a couple of key makes in the dying stages from Josh Batty that got Rosmini over the line.
St Peter’s 72 – Dallow 28, Carr 14, Smith 11, Milan Tolich 8
Rosmini 77 – Reed 23, J Wyllie 14, C Wyllie 13, J Batty 11, Roudon 9
Mt Albert Grammar School remain at the head of the pack after defeating Rangitoto College 105-70.
Roman Keith-Peraua landed 8 points as MAGS edged the opening frame 16-15.
Michael Ropotini scored 6 second quarter points for the visitors but the period was dominated by MAGS to the tune of 29-13. There were 8 points from Dante Matakatea in the quarter as well as triples from Kade Cartwright and Ethan Lay. MAGS ahead 45-28 at half-time.
The three-point flavour caught on further in the second half as Hari Coker-Grey (3 from 3 on the night), Matakatea and Cartwright bumped the MAGS score up in threes on their way to a 76-51 three-quarter time lead.
Rangi forward Joel Brown demonstrated that he is no slouch from beyond the arc. Either side of three-quarter time he delivered on no fewer than five occasions from beyond the arc.
Logan Wood joined in the triple delight for MAGS while Arnold Nam did likewise for Rangitoto. It’s now nine straight wins for MAGS ahead of the mid-season break.
MAGS 105 – Matakatea 22/12rebs, Louis Uri 17, Keith Peraua 15, Coker-Grey 15, K Cartwright 14, Lay 8
Rangitoto 70 – Brown 20, Ropotini 17, Max Mudford 9, Nam 9, Elyas Taher 8
A three-point play late in the opening period from Roman Ma’afu- Moerua stretched the Auckland Grammar quarter time lead to 18-11 in their home tie against Westlake Boys High.
Ryan Hunt came up with the same mode of scoring to open the second frame – the Westlake riposte being a three from Andre Bautista.
A transition basket from Max Riechelmann was countered by an inside basket from Kalid Petzer as the two teams traded scores for much of the period.
Westlake appeared to make a decisive move in the shadows of half-time – scores from Riechelmann and Troy Supple taking the visitors on a 6-0 run to close the half just three points in arears (31-28)
The second half began with another 6-0 run although this one was in favour of Grammar – Roera Tipene and Ryan Hunt the providers.
Troy Wentworth broke the Westlake drought before Brigham Hakaraia’s scooped layup concluded another 7-1 AGS run.
The third went the way of Grammar 24-15 as they carried a 55-43 lead into the final ten minutes.
Any prospect of Westlake challenging the hosts in the final frame evaporated when AGS scored the first 9 points of the fourth. George Milburn was a constant menace on the offensive glass – he scored 12 fourth quarter points, claimed 28 in the game, and assured Grammar of a fifth straight win.
AGS 76 – Milburn 28, Hunt 18, Hakaraia 9, Pryor 7
Westlake 54 – Riechelmann 10, Hadi Alshami 7, Noah Rasmussen 6, Bautista 6, Supple 6
St Kentigern College began their contest against Sacred Heart College like a proverbial “house on fire” amassing 37 points with Merrick Rillstone (17 points) and George Turner (11 points) doing most of the damage as they combined to make seven threes in a similar number of minutes.
The 21-point advantage established by St Kent’s would prove too great a deficit for Sacred to overcome but to their credit they fought back to move within 10-points at one stage in the fourth quarter.
In addition to Turner and Rillstone, Hunter Te Ratana and Charlie Hughes made double figure contributions for the hosts.
Matt Fautuaalii-Taia led the way for Heart with a team high 22 points. He received good support from Preston Tuaputa, Sam Snowdon and Jerome Jakeman but ultimately that slow start cost Heart dearly.
The victory was a fitting way for St Kent’s Head Coach Aaron Young to sign off his home coaching duties before heading to his new assignment with the Perth Wildcats later next month. His last two matches at the helm will be at Westlake Boys and his alma mater Rangitoto College.
St Kent’s 96 – Rillstone 25, Turner 20, Te Ratana 16, Hughes 15
Sacred Heart 80 – Fautuaalii-Taia 22, Jakeman 16, Snowdon 13, Tuaputa 11
Teams will now enjoy a deserved break before the competition resumes on July 23.
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Standings
9-0 MAGS
7-2 Rosmini, AGS
6-3 St Kentigern
4-5 Westlake
2-7 Rangitoto
1-9 Sacred Heart
0-9 St Peter’s
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