LACEY LOWDOWN

We begin the mid-season review with a look at the NCAA Division I Men where Dan Fotu, Sam Waardenburg, Kruz Perrott-Hunt and Callum McRae are grabbing most the headlines.

5^th Year Seniors

Sam Waardenburg (University of Miami)

Sam Waardenburg, having missed all of last season due to a foot injury, has bounced back strongly starting all 12 games for the Hurricanes. Second on the team in assists per game (2.0apg) he leads the Hurricanes in 3-point shooting at 42% (11/26). Scored a season best 16 points against UCF. Recently became the 17^th New Zealander to score over 500 points in NCAA Division I Men’s basketball.

This season GP 12 GS 12 Points 89 Rebounds 45

Career GP 95 GS 47 Points 504 Rebounds 398

Seniors

Tobias Cameron (Abilene Christian University)

Tobias Cameron scored a career high 17 points against Incarnate Word in December. His shooting percentages this season read an impressive 59% field goals, 44%  and 85% from the free-throw line.

On track to play his 100^th game in February but yet to make a start for Abilene.

This season GP 11 GS 0 Points 64 Rebounds 37

Career: GP 88 GS 0 Points 214

Dan Fotu (St Mary’s College, California)

Second on the team in scoring Dan Fotu is averaging 10.4ppg. Scored a career high 22 points against Notre Dame in November.

With 670 career points sits 8th on the all-time list of NZ scorers in NCAA Division I Men’s basketball.

This season GP 14 GS 0 Points 146 Rebounds 57

Career GP 106 GS 47 Points 670

Harrison Young (Junior at Texas Christian University)

This season GP 2 GS 0 Points 0

Career GP 3 GS 0 Points 0

Juniors

Flynn Cameron (University of California, Riverside)

Flynn Cameron has started all 10 games and scored a season best 18 points against California Baptist. Second on the team in scoring (11.3ppg) shooting the 3-ball at a team best 44% (26/59).

This season GP 10 GS 10 Points 113 Rebounds 45

Career GP 71 GS 31 Points 384

Quinn Clinton (St Mary’s College, California)

Due to injury Quinn Clinton has been limited to one appearance this season.

This season GP 1 GS 0 Points 0

Career GP 45 GS 0 Points 103

Callum McRae (University of California, Riverside)

Callum McRae missed all of last season but has started all 10 games this season. Scored a season high 16 points against San Diego and season best 16 rebounds against Florida A&M. Leads the team in rebounds averaging 8.5rpg. 11^th on the NZ all-time list of points scorers in NCAA Division I Men’s basketball.

This season GP 10 GS 10 Points 84 Rebounds 85

Career GP 74 GS 50 Points 634 Rebounds 436

Angus McWilliam (University of California, Riverside)

Angus McWilliam is yet to take the court this season due to injury.

Career GP 53 GS 14 Points 236

Kruz Perrott-Hunt (Junior at University of South Dakota)

Kruz Perrott-Hunt scored a career best 25 points against Tennessee State in November. Leads the team in scoring (13.7ppg) and assists (2.2apg). 12-points shy of 400 career points.

This season GP 13 GS 13 Points 178 Rebounds 43

Career GP 60 GS 45 Points 388 

Sophomores

Sam Mennenga (Davidson College)

Sam Mennenga has started all but one of his 33 career games to date. Scored a season high 17 points against Penn and had 10 rebounds against Delaware.

This season GP 12 GS 12 Points 86 Rebounds 62

Career GP 33 GS 32 Points 212 Rebounds 166

James Moors (Sophomore at Colorado State University)

James Moors has the best field goal shooting percentage on the Colorado State team at 67% (18/27). Has recorded a season best 8 points on two occasions.

This season GP 10 GS 0 Points 36

Career GP 38 GS 21 Points 202 rebounds 112

Tom Webley (Sophomore at University of Hartford)

Tom Webley has had limited opportunities this season with 9 minutes the most court time he has seen in a single game.

This season GP 9 GS 2 Points 5

Career GP 21 GS 9 Points 69

Freshmen

Taine Murray (University of Virginia)

Taine Murray scored a season best 14 points against Iowa in late November.

This season GP 10  GS 0 Points 27

Mason Whittaker (American University)

Mason Whittaker scored his first collegiate points against Longwood in mid-November.

This season GP 4 GS 0 Points 3 Rebounds 4

Paora Winitana ( BYU)

A walk-on at BYU Paora Winitana is yet to make an appearance.

Akiva McBirney-Griffin, a Freshman at University of California Irvine is sitting out the 2021-22 season as he recovers from injury.

Ahead of a short festive season break for the NCAA Division I players Yuat Alok scored in double figures for the third time in the last five games as New Mexico State beat Texas Permian Basin. The senior forward scored 14 points on 6 from 9 shooting and at the defensive end downed 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal. New Mexico are an impressive 11-2 this season.

There were 4 points and 4 rebounds for Sam Mennenga as Davidson achieved a notable result knocking off #10 ranked Alabama 79-78 on Wednesday.

24 hours later Mennenga scored 8 points and added 6 boards as Davidson beat Johnson & Wales 106-64 for an eighth consecutive win.

Other Men’s Results:

St Mary’s 75 (Dan Fotu 2pts, 1reb) Missouri State 58

South Dakota 57 (Kruz Perrott-Hunt 8pts, 3rebs) Kansas City 68

Abilene Christian 74 (Tobias Cameron 5pts, 3 rebs, 2a) Longwood 58

In women’s Division I play #19 ranked BYU improved to 10-1 on the season by defeating Montana State 89-67.

Freshman Arielle Mackey-Williams made her highest score of the season making 9 points (4/5FG), Kaylee Smiler scored 5 points and Tegan Graham continued her good form with 10 points (3/6FG) and 4 assists. 

Other Women’s Results:

St Mary’s 55 (Tayla Dalton 7pts, 1reb, 1bl, 1stl/ Amy West 2pts, 6rebs, 1a) Cal Berkeley 73

Texas 70 (Kobe King-Hawea 3pts, 1reb) Princeton 53

A team high 21 points from Kruz Perrott-Hunt wasn’t enough to get South Dakota across the line as the Coyotes fell 82-73 to Oral Roberts in the opening game of the Summit League. The Tall Blacks guard shot 9 from 14 from the field including 3 of 4 from the 3-point arc. The Coyotes leading scorer now has 170 points this season at 14.2ppg. 

Another former North Harbour representative Sam Waardenburg posted 12 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists as Miami accounted for Stetson 82-72. Those 12 points carried Waardenburg past 500 career points – only the 16^th New Zealand man to have reached that mark in NCAA Division I hoops.

Tobias Cameron scored 11 points as Abilene Christian had its own way against Howard Payne winning 112-41. That’s the third double figure outing by the former Junior Tall Black in the 10 games Abilene have played this season.

Charlisse Leger-Walker continues to do the heavy lifting for Washington State University. The Cougars lost their second game in as many days defeated 69-62 by Stony Brook in a game that had 5 lead changes and 13 ties.

Once again Charlisse topped the Cougars scoring with 19 points to add to 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. Krystal L-W chimed in with 9 points, and two’s in rebounds, steals and assists – Washington State will now enjoy a 12-day break before Pac 12 Conference play gets underway.

Emme Shearer and Amiee Book were in opposition as Fresno State Bulldogs entertained Portland Pilots. It was Shearer that departed the grinner as Portland won 67-50. The former Westlake Girls’ standout knocked down a pair of threes on her way to 10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and a block. Book also made a brace of threes and finished with 8 points and a block. 

Other scores:

St Peter’s New Jersey 65 (Victoria Ikenasio 4pts, 5rebs) Canisius 55

Georgia Southern 88 (Tsubasa Nisbett 2pts, 2 rebs, 1a) Bethune-Cookman 59

Wofford 64 (Helen Matthews 5pts, 5rebs, 4a) Northern Kentucky 84

Many Junior Colleges have begun the festive season break but there are still a few performances of note to report before the season gets back into full swing in early January.

Utah State Eastern, with Ella Bradley and Maclani Michael in the thick of the action, won an overtime game against Colorado Northwestern 98-88.

Bradley, the multiple NZ age-group championship winner, posted an impressive stat line of 16 points (4/5 3PG), 5 rebounds, 5 blocks and 4 assists. Michael was also handy from deep making 3-6 triples to record 10 points.

Williston State suffered two defeats at the hands of Mesa College at the weekend. But that didn’t stop Keeley Tinipiling up the numbers. She recorded a double-double in both games averaging a colossal 17.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3 assists and 1.5 steals across the two fixtures.

Keeley has 225 points and 142 rebounds to her name this season – she sits 22^nd on the Junior College Division I scoring list and 13^th on the rebounding table.

Parehuia Delamere (Western Texas) and Te Araroa Sopaga (Cloud County) both appear in the national Top-20 for steals with 3.0 and 2.9 per game respectively.

Dawson College guard Samantha Jenkins is not far behind Tini’s scoring tally with 200 points already to her name.

Western Nebraska finished the first half of the season with a 72-57 win against Laramie County. Taranaki’s Izzy Cookscored 7 points (3/3FG) for the 14-1 Cougars ranked #10 in the nation.

Te Aroha’s Dejaan Schuler scored 5 points as #17 Casper College slipped to a 57-44 loss against Salt Lake.

The Kiwis were a little subdued in #8 Southern Idaho’s 63-49 win against Southern Nevada. Kyra Paniora had 2 points, 3 rebounds and a steal while Ashlee Strawbridge also had a steal to accompany 3 rebounds.

Central Maine pulled away in the final minutes to beat Southern Maine 54-48.  Safena Te Nana-Williams added 8 points to 6 rebounds and a steal while sister Leata knocked down a couple of threes in her 7 points. Harata Coleman didn’t contribute points but did come up with 3 rebounds and a steal.

In men’s action Nico Hill scored 15 points and grabbed a team high 7 rebounds as Missouri State – West Plains defeated United Prep 95-94. Shooting the three-ball at a tidy 37% Hill is averaging 10.5ppg.

South Georgia Tech beat Chattahoochee Valley 69-60 with Nate Wilson contributing an active 3 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks and an assist.

The BYU against Washington State fixture threw up a meeting involving five Kiwis and also a rematch of sorts between contestants from the 2015 National Secondary Schools Grand Final in which St Peter’s School Cambridge beat Wellington Girls’ College.

Back in 2015 Tegan Graham was a leading figure on the Wellington College team that finished runners-up to Krystal and Charlisse Leger-Walker and the victorious St Peter’s team. 

In a spicy contest on Sunday (NZT) Graham exacted a degree of revenge for that defeat six years ago as BYU underlined their Top-20 ranking with a 71-53 win – the Wellingtonian posting an impressive 15 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, a block and a steal.

Despite being pinged with three first quarter fouls Charlisse Leger-Walker still played the leading hand for Washington State as she made 6 from 10 from beyond the arc for 21 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. That was a new career high in 3-pointers made.

Krystal Leger-Walker filled most of the stats columns with 5 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals for Washington State.

BYU welcomed back former Waikato teammate of the L-W sisters Kaylee Smiler. Despite being absent for the last month with a knee injury the whippy guard provided her usual defensive hustle finishing with 2 points, 2 rebounds and a steal.

BYU freshman Arielle Mackey-Williams entered the action for the final minute of the game.

It was one way traffic at Fresno State with the Bulldogs chewing up UC Merced 81-29. Amiee Book led the Bulldogs scoring with a game high, and season best, 18 points making 8 of her 10 shots.

Other Women’s Scores

Boise State 54 (Kaitlin Burgess 6pts, 2a, 1reb) Pepperdine 56

USC 77 (Tera Reed 4pts, 3rebs, 3a, 3 steals) Texas Southern 45

St Peter’s, New Jersey 68 (Victoria Ikenasio 2pts, 2rebs) Niagara 64

Wofford 49 (Helen Matthews 2pts, 1reb) Clemson 84

Georgia Southern 71 (Tsubasa Nisbett 2pts, 2rebs, 1a, 1stl, 1 block) Kennesaw State 72

Yuat Alok was in the scoring groove again as New Mexico State proved too good for state rivals Northern New Mexico winning 93-60.

Alok finished with 16 points (6/8FG, 3/4FT) as well as 5 rebounds – 4 of which were off the offensive glass.

Sam Mennenga scored just two points as Davidson College defeated Radford 74-54 but it did bring up the 200^th career point for the former Westlake forward. He also tallied 4 rebounds, an assist and a steal.

St Mary’s California 53 (Dan Fotu 2pts, 1reb) San Diego State 63

Kendell Heremaia piled on 18 points (6/11FG) as Fordham dominated Lafayette to win 71-36. That’s the 1,100-career points mark reached by Heremaia, going past former Tall Fern Jillian Harmon (1,096 points), and up to ninth on the all-time list of New Zealand Division I (Women) scorers.

Travelling cross-country from California to the east coast St Mary’s Gaels found it hard going against Number 2 ranked North Carolina State going down 101-73 against the Wolfpack. 

The Kiwi trio at St Mary’s stood up against the quality opposition – Jade Kirisome came up with a season high 17 points (7/11FG, 3/5 3PG), Tayla Dalton scored 9 points (4/8FG) and Amy West finished with 5 points and 6 rebounds.

The Gaels followed that with a game winning shot on the buzzer to pip Coastal Carolina 61-58; 11 points and 4 rebounds for Dalton in that one. 

Helen Matthews scored 9 points (plus 3 rebounds and an assist) as Wofford Terriers defeated Appalachian State 78-65.

Underlining his immense value to South Dakota Kruz Perrott-Hunt remained on court for the final 10 minutes against Bellarmine despite being on 4 fouls. Perrott-Hunt made 19 points (3/5 3PG, 8/8 FT), 7 rebounds and 4 assists as he led the Coyotes to a 78-64 victory in their last non-conference fixture.

Other Results (Men)

Davidson 79 (Sam Mennenga 4pts, 3rebs, 2a) Northeastern 69

Miami 72 (Sam Waardenburg (5rebs, 1a) Fordham 66

St Mary’s 76 (Dan Fotu 3pts, 7rebs, 1 block) Stanislaus 39

New Mexico State 64 (Yuat Alok 4pts, 1reb) Washington State 61

Other Results (Women)

USC 76 (Tera Reed 6pts (2/2 3PG), 4rebs, 4a, 1 steal) CSU Northridge 51

Portland 70 (Emme Shearer 4pts, 1 steal) Stephen F Austin 59

UC Irvine 74 (Olivia Williams 2pts, 2rebs, 2a) San Jose State 66

Keeley Tini threatened another double-double as Williston State eased past Dickinson State 75-54. The ex-Westlake standout secured 9 rebounds to go with 21 points making 8 from 14 from the field and 5 from 6 from the charity stripe. Tini is only 10 points shy of 200 points for the season. 

Samantha Jenkins is even closer to the 200 mark after she scored 12 points, and snaffled 5 steals, as Dawson College proved too good for Dickinson State winning 73-45. Jenkins is now on 194 points from 14 games – the leading Kiwi scorer in Division I Junior College Women’s basketball. 

Waiaaria Rogers put together her best scoring game of the season in Marshalltown’s 95-67 loss to North Iowa Area. The former Rangitoto College sharp-shooter dropped 4 from 7 from beyond the arc on her way to 14 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists.

Cloud College were outscored 23-13 in the final quarter and fell 71-58 at #14 Butler. 

Kay-Hauata Phillips was one of three Cloud players in double figures with 10 points to accompany 7 rebounds and 1-each if assists, blocks and steals.  Te Araroa Sopoaga (6pts/5rebs/5assists/1block/3steals) also filled the a box score line while Te Oriwa Tuipolotu had 2 points and a rebound.

Sopoaga, averaging 3 steals per game, is in the top 20 in the country for that statistical category as is Western Texas guard Parehuia Delamere.

Rashaan Smith scored 8 points as #10 Western Nebraska proved way too good for Central Wyoming winning 92-53 to move to 12-1 this season. Back from injury Izzy Cook scored 4 points and grabbed a brace of rebounds.

Also returning from injury was Briarley Rogers in Weatherford’s 75-61 loss to Midland. Briarley knocked down 2 of 3 three-pointers for 6 points in her first game back after five weeks on the sideline.

Co-captain Safena Te Nana-Williams had a game high 5 assists to go with 8 points and 2 steals as Central Maine beat Bryant and Stratton 78-75 despite being outscored 24-9 in the final quarter. Leta Te Nana-Williams and Harata Coleman chipped in with 3 and 2 points respectively.

22^nd ranked Casper College are on a six-game win streak after defeating Allen County 66-44. Dejaan Schuler came up with 6 points (2/2 3PG) for the T-Birds

Maclani Michael came up with 6 points and 5 rebounds as Utah State Eastern beat Southern Nevada 79-60.

Southern Idaho are now 11-1 after defeating Colorado Northwestern 82-58. Southern Idaho are ranked #9 – the highest placed team with Kiwi players. Kyra Paniora (4pts/5rebs/2 assists) and Ashlee Strawbridge(4pts/5rebs/2assists) both started for the Golden Eagles against Northwestern. 

It was tough going for Dodge City as they went down 78-45 to #25 ranked Hutchinson.

Jenna Rose Mafua will have taken heart from her 4 points, 5 assists and impressive 5 steals against highly ranked opposition

Rosie Campbell contributed 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 rebounds as Southeast beat Union 97-35.

In Men’s action Nico Hill came up with 9 points and 4 rebounds but Missouri State–West Plains went down 87-73 to Midland.

Nate Wilson was busy in South Georgia Tech’s narrow 84-78 loss to Florida Southwestern State. Nate came up with 9 rebounds, 3 points, a couple of rebounds and a block.

Brigham Young University (BYU) may have suffered its first loss of the season going down 99-91 at Oklahoma in overtime on Saturday (NZT) but the game will long be remembered for the shooting performance by Kiwi Tegan Graham.

Graham is in her second season with the Cougars having previously made 98 appearances for Colgate University. A renowned perimeter shooter she sits 6^th on Colgate’s All-time 3-Point field goal percentage (34%). 

However nothing she has done before compares with her performance against Oklahoma as she made TEN shots from behind the arc from 17 attempts (59%) for a career high 30 points.

Those 30 points also took Graham past 100 points for the season and 1,000 career points – the 17^th New Zealander to score over one thousand NCAA Division I points.

Even elite shooter Kirk Penney didn’t make that many triples in a single game during his illustrious college career with the Wisconsin Badgers.

Not surprisingly the former Wellington Girl’s College and New Zealand age-group representative has set an all-time record for the number of threes made in a single game in BYU Women’s basketball programme history. It’s also the highest number of threes made in NCAA Division I basketball by a Kiwi – a record that is likely to stand for a very long time. 

BYU now get a week off before entertaining Washington State University and the Ledger-Walker sisters Krystal and Charlisse in an intriguing match-up.

I for one can’t wait!

Kendell Heremaia made a lay-up with two seconds remaining on the clock to steal a 65-63 win for Fordham in the Battle of the Bronx rivalry game against Manhattan. 

Entering the contest Heremaia had racked up 1,072 points, 680 rebounds, 279 assists, and 120 steals during her Fordham career to-date with only six other Rams have reached the 1,000-point, 500-rebound, 200-assist, 100-steal plateaus.

The former Waikato standout added to those numbers with 16 points, 9 rebounds and an assist in 31 minutes against Manhattan. Her tally of 1,088 career points moved her ahead of Josie Stockill (1,081 points) into 11^th on the all-time list of New Zealand scorers in Women’s NCAA Division I play. Two more points and Heremaia will move into the Top-10 ahead of Tessa Boagni (1,089 points).

Charlisse Leger-Walker had scored 10-or-more points in 28 of her career 31 games played. That number increased to 29 as Washington State, in front of a big crowd in the ‘Kennel’, beat Gonzaga Bulldogs 51-49.

However it wasn’t her 14 points that stood out in this one but the critical defensive rebound she secured amongst Gonzaga’s tall timber, with 5 seconds left on the clock and her team ahead by just a single point (50-49). That critical rebound and a free-throw that followed secured the win. 

Playing all 40 minutes Charlisse added 4 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists and a block to her 14 points while Krystal Leger-Walker also had 4 steals to accompany 2 points plus threes in assists and rebounds.

Helen Matthews enjoyed herself as Wofford Terriers terrorised Brevard College to win 101-37. Matthews made a season best 14 points (6/8FG) to add to 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and a block.

Other Results:

Colorado State 73 (Jess Moors 1pt, 3rebs) Weber State 60

Miami 76 (Sam Waardenburg 2pts, 4rebs, 1a, 1 steal) Lipscomb 59

Yuat Alok scored a career high 19 points (9/13FG) as New Mexico State won 78-76 in overtime on the home court of fierce rivals New Mexico on Monday (NZT). Alok scored six of the Aggies 10 overtime points and also added 4 rebounds, 4 assists and a blocked shot.

Back in 2017 Alok was rated the third best Junior College recruit after two standout years at Chipola College. However, since then his college career has had a number of false starts but perhaps this performance will spur him to greater heights.

He played just 10 games for Texas Christian University in 2018 then next appeared in Coppin State colours for the 2020-21 season where in 11 games (all as a starter) he averaged a more than useful 9.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.

Now Alok has landed at his third Division I college in as many years with his career performance against New Mexico perhaps a sign of the 6’11” centre’s potential coming to fruition.

Alok first made a name for himself at Selwyn College before moving across the Harbour Bridge to Rangitoto College where he formed a formidable front court pairing with Tai Wynyard.

He also caught the eye of the Breakers and was signed as a Development Player for the 2014/15 NBL season.

Aged 17 he moved to the States where he played at Impact Academy in Sarasota, Florida before embarking on his collegiate journey.

Another former Breakers DP has seen his hot scoring streak come to an end as South Dakota went down 74-69 against Northern Colorado.

Kruz Perrott-Hunt had scored in double figures in five straight games and was averaging 14.6ppg but had just 5 points in this one (plus 3 rebounds and an assist) as the Coyotes slip to 5-4.

Tera Reed delivered season high points (15), rebounds (9) and assists (5) but couldn’t prevent University Southern California falling 78-63 to San Francisco.

14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, a block and a steal from Kendell Heremaia helped propel Fordham to a 76-67 victory over Princeton ahead of the Battle of the Bronx against Manhattan on Thursday (NZT).

Other Results:

Boise State 76 (Kaitlin Burgess 9pts, 5rebs) Florida Atlantic 64

Virginia 62 (McKenna Dale 2pts, 1reb) George Washington 53

Texas Christian 54 (Tara Manmaleuga 4pts, 2stls, 1a, 1reb) Florida 63

Virginia 49 (Taine Murray 1pt, 1reb, 1a) James Maddison 52