Canty In Favourites Seat
With a team loaded with national representatives, Canterbury go into the wheelchair section at the Oreo Open and Wheelchair Basketball National Championships in Levin as low-odds favourites.
With New Zealand men’s team players John Wiser, Travis Moffatt, Justin Cameron and Reo Lewis, along with Australian import Andrew Farrant, Canterbury will be tough to topple as they face defending champions Waikato and hosts Kapiti-Horowhenua at the Horowhenua Events Centre.
Waikato, who contributed four players to the 2007 tournament team, return national teamer Danny McBride, along with tourney team selections Sheldon Larsen and Alister Johnston but will be without last season’s MVP Tony Sachs.
Wiser, Lewis and Wayne Chase were also tournament team selections from Canterbury in 2007, but the South Islanders will be missing Shawn Russell and Mark Sullivan from the tournament team 12 months ago.
“Waikato usually have an import but they’ve opted for development this year rather than get an import. Waikato will still be strong but Canterbury have some really good players,” Wheelchair Basketball New Zealand president Pauline Patterson said.
Newcomers Kapiti-Horowhenua, a team formed earlier this year, will likely have Eino Okkonen, an Australian originally recruited by Canterbury, in their line-up, which includes mostly locals players led by Marcus Thompson.
“Kapiti is a newly formed club and to come to nationals in their first year is a tremendous effort on their part.”
In the wheelchair tournament, players are graded between 1.5 and 4.5 points, with a maximum of 14 points allowed on the court at any one time. Able-bodied players can compete at national tournaments, automatically given a 4.5 rating.
With NSW gone, the remaining three teams will play a double round-robin, with no final.
The New Zealand men’s team will play an invitational team, likely to be led by Farrant and Okkonen, on Friday night, after the wheelchair tournament’s fourth team, New South Wales, withdrew last week. NSW were due to play two exhibition games against the national team, along with competing for the title.
