Jackson Kiss, Hunter Te Ratana, Jameer Reed and Gus Dallow returned to action as the Auckland Secondary Schools Boys Premier Grade regular season title race continued. The top three teams all won their Round 12 fixtures while St Kentigern College moved a step closer to locking in a top four berth with victory over Mt Roskill Grammar.
Sacred Heart guards Sam Snowdon and Jamie Vile combined for 52 points but a more balanced scoring effort, with five players in double figures, carried Auckland Grammar to a 92-65 victory.
Grammar welcomed back Jackson Kiss after his outstanding efforts at the FIBA U17 World Cup in Turkey and he, along with Lawson Pryor, scored 10 points in the opening period as Grammar built a 30-18 lead.
Vile had an identical number for Heart in the second but Grammar were almost out of reach with a 52-32 half-time lead.
Snowdon and Vile kept the points ticking over but Sol Anderson, Carver Gibson and Roma Ma’afua-Moerua carried the visitors through the second half without any major alarms.
Sacred Heart 65 – Vile 31, Snowdon 21
AGS 101 – Kiss 15, Anderson 14, Gibson 14, Ma’afu-Moerua 12, Pryor 10
Westlake maintained the pressure on AGS at the head of the table with a 97-62 home win.
Lucas Cartwright drained a couple of early threes for the visitors although Lake stamped their authority on proceedings with a 28-14 opening salvo.
A Nic Bamford three was cancelled out by a Dayton Simkin trey but eight second quarter points from Oscar Neville carried Westlake to a 52-29 interval lead.
The third was something of a three-point shoot-out as Simkin, Cartwright and Logan Wood were successful for MAGS while Troy Wentworth, Noah Rasmussen and Bamford returned fire for the hosts.
Rasmussen and Cartwright chalked up 20-point games but with a 74-52 three-quarter time lead Westlake were able to ease their way to victory – a late triple from Troy Supple capping the performance.
Westlake 97 – Rasmussen 22, Supple 14, Wentworth 13, Neville 11, Tai Rhodes 9
MAGS 62 – Cartwright 20, Simkin 10, Wood 9, Mikey Moses 8
St Peter’s guard Gus Dallow and Rosmini College forward Jameer Reed, returning to their respective teams after enjoying success at the FIBA U17 World Cup in Turkey, were involved in a thriller which was eventually won 96-87 by Rosmini in overtime.
Trailing 75-66, after a Sunny Nair triple, with a little over three minutes to play in regulation St Peter’s mounted a stirring comeback in the closing minutes.
When Bailey Smith converted an And-1 play St Peter’s had strung together eight unanswered points to close within one. Then a Hunter John’s make was countered by a Spencer Carr triple to tie proceedings at 77 points apiece.
After Rosmini free-throws Carr drained an even deeper three to give the Saints an 80-79 lead with just 11 seconds remaining. A likely Saints win was then thwarted by Reed as his one from two from the charity stripe sent the game into overtime.
Bart Jackowski, taking his tally to 34 points, and Reed went on to boss the additional five minutes – combining for 14 points – to carry the hosts to a hard fought victory.
It was 18 points apiece at quarter time, 42-38 in favour of Saint Peter’ at the half and 60-57 to Rosmini at the three-quarter mark as both teams enjoyed spells in the lead.
Nair, Jackowski and Reed kept Rosmini in the ascendancy in the fourth before Carr – 14 of his game high 36 points coming in the final quarter – almost stole the win.
Carr, outstanding throughout, was well supported by Smith, Dallow, Montana Ekeroma and Mario Nola.
Rosmini 96 – Jackowski 34, Reed 23, Johns 14, Nair 10
St Peter’s 87 – Carr 36, Smith 15, Nola 10, Dallow 10, Ekeroma 10
Hunter Te Ratana returned to the St Kentigern sidefollowing his fine efforts at the FIBA U17 World Cup in Turkey and scored his teams opening 5 points as they racked up 36 opening quarter points – three triples from Noah Heke amongst that barrage.
Lincoln Tupa’i Samuel and Tino Seuiavatele scored 8 points apiece for Roskill as they closed the opening half 51-25 behind.
Heke and the Te Ratana’s (Hunter and Cooper) kept the points flowing in the third period as St Kent’s enjoyed an 83-57 lead with a quarter to play.
A couple of triples from Wai Tonga were a feature of the last period which, to their credit, Roskill won 24-14.
St Kent’s 97 – Heke 22, H Te Ratana 16, Ari Taylor 13, C Te Ratana 12, J Griffin 11
Mt Roskill 81 – T Seuiavatele 25, W Tonga 15, Zach Keman 10, L Tupa’i Samuel 8
Standings:
11-1 AGS
10-2 Westlake
9-2 Rosmini
6-6 St Kentigern
5-7 St Peter’s
3-8 MAGS
3-9 Sacred Heart
0-12 Mt Roskill
*Mt Albert Grammar v Rosmini College postponed to August 5th.
LACEY LOWDOWN 