LACEY LOWDOWN

St Peter’s School Cambridge Girls opened their account at theISF Basketball World Schools Championship in Greece with a 58-41 win in a physical encounter with Greece.

Despite afew handling errors from St Peter’s in what Head Coach Leanne Walker described as a “nervous start,” the Schick National Champs were still able to forge a 15-8 opening quarter lead.

The momentum stayed with St Peter’s in the second quarter – they led 27-18 at half time and would go on to win all four periods.

Walker commented that there was some adjustments to be made as the games consisted of 4×8 minute quarters.

“It was a physical encounter with Greece adopting a determined pressing effort. This was overcome by some slick passing and good ball movement. Greece then dropped back into a zone but a corner three after some excellent inside-out action meant they switched out of that pretty quickly,” added Walker.

Unfortunately we do not have the individual scorers from the game.

St Peter’s are drawn in Group E of the girl’s competition alongside teams from Israel, Latvia as well as the Greek team and face Israel on Sunday at 5pm local time.

Team:

Charlisse-Leger Walker, Megan Bradley, Grace McGirr, Alana Paewai, Ella Bradley, Jayze’Lee Waihi, Toha Kemp, Ahi Williams, Dominique Stephens, Emma Baker, Waiata Jennings

Head Coach- Leanne Walker, Assistant Coach – Anthony Corban

Rosmini College has made a successful start to their campaign at the ISFBasketball World Schools Championship in Crete.

Rosmini playing in Group F, defeated their Bulgarian opponents 74-47 on Saturday, a feature being that all twelve players scored points in the convincing win. Only Taine Murray (10 points) went into double figures although three players scored 8 points (Kainoa Lepou, Reihana Maxwell-Topia and Marvin Williams-Dunn) and Sean Murphy scored 9 points.

After winning the opening quarter 20-10, Rosmini increased its advantage to 37-23 at half-time and 60-32 at the three-quarter mark.

Rozza will face the other two teams in Group F on Sunday facing China in the afternoon preceded by North Macedonia in the morning. Macedonia defeated China 52-44 on Saturday.

Rosmini Head Coach was pleased with the opening performance.

“It was good to get a win but both China and Macedonia will be tougher opponents tomorrow.”

“China is the same team from Beijing that we played last January when they visited Auckland.”

In other news St Peter’s School Cambridge made a winning start in the girls tournament beating Greece 2 58-41.

Rosmini College

Marvin William-Dunn, Jason Mittef, Jayden Boucher, Taine Murray, Thomas Morgan, Tyler Martin, Kainoa Lepou, Cian Emery, Reihana Maxwell-Topia, Sean Murphy, Terence Abdon, Tom Seuren

Head Coach – Matt Lacey, Assistant Coach – Sonny Tuaputa

The Rosmini College Boys’ team and the St Peter’s School Cambridge Girls’ team have arrived in Greece ahead of the International School Sport Federation (ISF) 25th Basketball World Schools Championship.

The ISF Tournament, contested every two years, is being held in Heraklion on the island of Crete beginning tomorrow (Saturday).

St Peter’s will take onoe of the two teams from hosts Greece whilst Rosmini will be up against a team from Bulgaria. More details below.

view here

Carmel College saw off the challenge of Epsom Girls Grammar to secure its berth in the 2019 Auckland Secondary School Premier competition on Monday night. After some even early exchanges Carmel pulled away to win convincingly 95-57 in front of a good crowd on its home court.

Carmel were paced by 36 points from Tayla Dalton who was ably supported by Emily Broomfield (11pts), Estelle Davidson (10pts), Izzy Cattermole and Qaizden Stephano. Aria Todd-Pemerika and Sarah-Joy Aruwa led the way for Epsom with 14 points apiece and Florence Dallow was also in double figures with a dozen points.

From the outset Epsom coach Keith Langley employed a rarely seen triangle and two defensive strategy with a pair of guards detailed to play full court defence on Dalton whether she was in possession or not. The ploy worked initially as Dallow and Aruwa gave Epsom an early lead.

It was rather bizarre observing a passive Dalton allowing her teammates to play a 4 on 3 game. However Carmel made its numerical supremacy in the half court count as Cattermole, Broomfield and Stephano picked holes in the Epsom defence to give the hosts a 21-11 quarter time lead.

Todd-Pemerika made the first two baskets of the second period before a corner three from Mackenzie Makereth initiated another scoring surge from the hosts. Dalton countered the double teaming by regularly picking up possession deep in her own half and using her superior foot speed to outstrip the Epsom defence. The Junior Tall Fern reeled off ten points at the back end of the quarter to give her team a comfortable 42-21 half-time advantage.

The third quarter was a free scoring affair – Aruwa provided some joy for the Epsom followers with ten points and Alice Roy and Todd-Pemerika also made multiple scores.

Carmel shaded the stanza by a point (23-22) thanks to a balanced offensive effort.

Scores early in the fourth from Georgia Green, Davidson and Dalton, plus a deep three from Broomfield, ensured there would be no late charge from Epsom Girls who will now look to win the 2019 Senior A competition to secure automatic Premier status the next year.

For Carmel, developing nicely under coach Gareth Teahan, a spot in the Premier Grade top four looks a realistic goal ahead of the 2019 season.

The Rosmini College Premier basketball team has accepted an invitation from the International School Sport Federation (ISF) to participate in the 25th Basketball World Schools Championship.

The 2018 Schick Secondary Schools Champions will travel to Heraklion on the island of Crete for the 24-team tournament beginning April 12, 2019.

Rosmini are following in the footsteps of Rangitoto College that attended the last World Schools Championship held in Croatia in 2017.

Rosmini Head Coach Matt Lacey is looking forward to the prospect of leading his team against some of the top secondary school teams in the world.

“Following our success at the 2018 Schick Nationals in October we were all thinking the season was over and were ready for our team to part ways. However this is too great an opportunity to miss and we are delighted to be headed to Crete next April.

“It’s exciting to be invited to a world championship event and is a fitting reward for an outstanding group of players, many of them having played together for the past five years. The year thirteens in the team now get an opportunity to extend their school basketball careers for a further six months,” said Lacey.

Unlike the 2017 Rangitoto team that was deprived of three starters (Sam Waardenburg, Braydon Inger and Dan Fotu) for their Croation expedition, Rosmini will be travelling with all but Joseph Hylton from the twelve-player squad that won Nationals in October.

“Due to the timing we were unfortunately unable to take the full team that won the 2015 Schick Secondary Schools National Championship,” said Rangitoto Coach Kenny Stone.

“It will be a fantastic experience for the Rosmini boys. The bulk of the teams are from Europe and those from Turkey, France, Croatia and Spain were very strong in 2017. The team from Turkey that won the event that year would have beaten our New Zealand NBL teams. All the European teams arrive in good shape because their season is just coming to an end in April,” added Stone.

For three of the Rosmini team it will be a second trip to a World Championship event in ten months. Mitch Dance, Kainoa Lepou and Marvin Williams-Dunn were all members of the New Zealand team that attended the FIBA U18 World Cup in Argentina in June.

Rosmini team:

Terence Abdon, Jayden Boucher, Mitchell Dance, Kainoa Lepou, Reihana Maxwell-Topia, Tyler Martin, Thomas Morgan, Sean Murphy, Taine Murray, Kruz Perrott-Hunt, Tom Seuren, Marvin Williams-Dunn

You can follow the team’s journey through their Facebook page, click here.

For information on how you can assist the team in their quest to attend ISF Basketball World Championship click here.

The successes of Rosmini College and St Peter’s School Cambridge in claiming 2018 Schick Championships ‘AA’ National Secondary School Basketball titles has followed a continuing trend.

Rosmini claimed the Doug Harford Trophy for the second successive year and the third time in eight years beating St Patrick’s College Kilbirnie 114-62 in the final.

Following the successes of Westlake Boys High School and Rangitoto College, the three North Shore schools have between them claimed ten titles in the last fourteen years with only Otago Boys High, Fraser High and St Pat’s Kilbirnie (twice) interrupting the winning sequence.

The Tom Abercrombie led Westlake team of 2005 claimed the first of Westlake’s five titles. Corey Webster was also prominent that year and ensured a repeat in 2006.

Rob Loe featured in the aforementioned triumphs and was also the dominant figure in Westlake’s 2009 triumph.

Rosmini got their hands on the Doug Harford trophy for the first time in 2011 with Anamata Haku and Tohi Smith-Milner proving formidable.

Tai Webster in 2012 and Jack Salt in 2013 ensured Westlake would go back to back and after Otago Boys High clinched the 2014 title Rangitoto also went back to back in 2015 and 2016.

Tai Wynyard was a formidable force in 2015 and Sam Waardenburg a shining light in 2016 although it is the memory of the buzzer beating effort from Cam Stone, that broke the hearts of Palmerston North Boys High in 2016, that lives longest in the memory.

The consecutive wins by Rosmini College prompts the question can any other school buck the trend in 2019?

St Peter’s School Cambridge won the C.A. Clarke Trophy for the third time in four years by defeating Hutt Valley High School 92-51 on Saturday.

With St Peter’s returning the vast majority of their players in 2019, including the prodigious Charlisse-Leger Walker, it is hard to envisage anything but another victory for the Cambridge school next year.

If it is North Shore schools ruling the roost in the Boys competition of late, Waikato schools have dominated the Girls’ competition for the past four decades.

Church College lifted the C.A. Clarke Trophy for the first time in 1981 and remarkably lifted that trophy another 19 times in the following 28 years – the last success in 2009, the year the school closed.

Sacred Heart College, Hamilton (1988) and Hamilton Girls High (2012) have also stood atop the podium meaning Waikato schools have totaled 27 victories in the 50 years the championship has been contested.

It’s a pity we have to wait another twelve months to witness another Schick Secondary Schools Nationals.

Rosmini College added to its 2011 and 2017 titles whilst St Peter’s Cambridge made it three wins in four years as the Schick National Championships came to a close in Palmerston North on Saturday.

The bronze medal games were won by Westlake Girls and St Kentigern College Boys.

Game reports here

The finalists have been found at the 2018 Schick Championships ‘AA’ National Secondary School Basketball Championships.

The Girl’s Final will feature Hutt Valley High School and, returning for a fourth straight final, St Peter’s School Cambridge.

St Patrick’s College Kilbirnie, that last won the title in 2008, will take on defending champions Rosmini College  in the Boy’s Final.

Read full report here