LACEY LOWDOWN

The 2024 Auckland Schools Girls Premier and Senior A semi-finals produced some intriguing clashes on Friday night.

The Premier final will see form teams Manurewa High School and Northcote College go head to head while in Senior A the top two finishers in the regular season will clash for a third time with their earlier match-ups tied at 1-1.

Premier Semi-Finals

For the second consecutive week Takapuna Grammar faced Manurewa High without Bailey Flavell – in Mexico ahead of her Tall Ferns debut.

As with the final regular season meeting Takapuna put up a strong showing before the regular season champions, led by Bella Manu-Moore, were able to exert some authority and close out the win.

Manurewa made the stronger start pulling away to a 29-13 lead with both Manu-Moore and Taisha Tanira quickly into double figures.

Natalja Burton and Adeline Lee combined to score all 16 of Taka’s second quarter points but it was a sizeable margin at half-time with Manurewa 53-29 to the good.

Shirley Tuilimu came up with 8 third quarter points for the hosts but Burton and Amy McKenzie led the Taka fight back as they edged the third frame 19-18.

Alex Castells Espino and McKenzie maintained Taka’s scoring momentum but a triple from Taisha Tanira and a brace of scores from sister Emily confirmed it would be Manurewa that were heading to the Grand Final.

Manurewa 82 – Manu-Moore 30, T Tanira 20, Tuilimu 16, E Tanira 8,Waimihi Hetaraka-Brown 6

Takapuna 70 – Burton 26, McKenzie 17, Lee 8, Mania Watson 7

In the second semi-final Northcote College continued their good run of form as they won a high scoring encounter 100-80 at St Kentigern College.

Languishing near the foot of the table at the mid-way point of the season Northcote have enjoyed a fine run recently. This was their fifth win in six games and achieved on the back of 20-point outings from DJ Hannah, Lisa Gear and Mischa Aitchison.

The afore mentioned trio along with Amelia Poorekhorsandi each made threes in the opening quarter as Northcote surged to a 27-20 lead.

Kilani Tuineau and Charlie Yock combined for all 20 of St Kent’s second quarter points but 8 from Ema Lavemaau steered the visitors to a ten point (50-40) half-time advantage.

It was nip and tuck in the third as the two teams traded baskets – Tuineau and Rosie Ward to the fore for St Kent’s, Aitchison with 10 points for Northcote and their lead 73-61 with a quarter to play.

Led by Tuineau, recently named to the New Zealand U15 national team, St Kent’s strived to get on equal terms in the closing minutes but a fourth triple from Aitchison and a combined 17 from the Hannah and Gear steered Northcote into the Grand Final for the first time since 2006.

St Kentigern 80 – Tuineau 35, Yock 15, Gigi Forster 9, Ward 6, Jeanette Tuumaialu 6

Northcote 100 – Gear 26, Hannah 24, Aitchison 20, Lavemaau 15, Poorekhorsandi 7, Abby Allan 6

The Senior A semi-finals went with seedings as Carmel College and Auckland Girls Grammar prevailed despite strong resistance from St Mary’s and McAuley.

Paced by Ella Drake (30 points) Carmel College held off a resilient St Mary’s team to win 78-71.

Carmel appeared to be cruising to victory when they led 47-29 at half-time but with Olive Maling (31 points) in good form St Mary’s chipped away at the deficit to make it a nervy final few minutes for the regular season champions.

Nine points from Drake helped Carmel establish a double digit (23-12) quarter time advantage and when the same player drained a pair of threes to compliment scores from Ruby Railton and Annie Gaylard Carmel were almost 20-points ahead.

Momentum started to swing the way of St Mary’s after the break as Maling and Abigail Alea were mainly responsible for trimming the deficit by six to 63-51 with ten minutes to play.

Maling, named as a reserve to the NZ U16 team earlier in the week, tallied 9 points in the last quarter and with India Nash adding a couple of baskets St Mary’s continued to threaten.

However 7 points from Tibbotts and a late triple from Drake eased Carmel through to next Friday’s grand-final.

Carmel 78 – Drake 30, Tibbotts 15, Railton 12, Gaylard 6, Imogen O’Rourke 6

St Mary’s 71 – Maling 31, Nash 13, Alea 10, Heaven-Leigh Schmid 8

Unfortunately the Lowdown doesn’t have full details of the other semi-final but can report Auckland Girls Grammar came back for a 35-25 half-time deficit to edge McAuley High School 63-61.