Basketball New Zealand

Junior Tall Blacks hopeful Richie Edwards helped Lakeland High into the Florida regional finals on Tuesday

Junior Tall Blacks hopeful Richie Edwards is now three games from a 6A state championship with his Lakeland High team in Florida after two playoff wins in the last six days.

Edwards scored 11 points and pulled in 15 rebounds as the Lakeland Dreadnaughts defeated Sickles High of Tampa 48-43 at home on Tuesday to advance to the regional final, where they will host Orlando’s Olympia High on Saturday.

Edwards, who corralled the final rebound as time expired and headed to the students’ section to celebrate, hit a pair of free-throws in the final minute to help ice the game for the Dreads, who reached Florida’s last eight for the first time since 1979 and ended a streak of three years of being knocked out in the regional semifinals.

“We finished the game out like a team going far in the playoffs should,” Edwards told The Ledger, of Lakeland, after the game.

The former Cantabrian had 15 points in Lakeland’s 76-58 home win over St Petersburgh High in the regional quarters last Thursday.

Another JTB contender, Dion Prewster, had modest numbers as his junior college, San Jacinto, split a home double-header last week, beating Bossier Parish 100-85 on Saturday and losing 69-67 to Lon Morris on Wednesday, in region 14 play.

Prewster averaged 4.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.0 steals, averaging 21.0 minutes in the two games, as the Ravens moved to 18-10 on the season.

Harbour’s Rory Fannon, New Zealand’s only male in NCAA-division one, managed two points (1/2 FG, 0/2 FT) and two rebounds in eight minutes in Utah Valley’s 63-58 home loss to Cal State-Bakersfield on Friday, leaving the Wolverines at 14-11.

In NCAA-division two, former Tall Black Jeremiah Trueman racked up 25 points (9/15 FG, 7/8 FT), six boards, two assists, two steals and a block in 32 minutes in Alaska-Anchorage’s 88-77 overtime road win over Western Washington on Saturday.

Trueman posted 14 points (5/9 FG, 4/4 FT), eight rebounds, four steals, an assist and block in a 68-66 road loss to Seattle Pacific on Thursday, with the Seawolves now 13-12 overall and 7-5 in the Great North conference.

Current Tall Blacks squad member Alex Pledger hung nine points (2/4 FG, 5/6 FT), five rebounds and a block in 17 minutes on Queens University of Charlotte on Saturday in Belmont Abbey’s 88-69 home win, lifting the Crusaders to 18-7 overall and 14-4 in the Carolinas-Virginia conference.

At NAIA level, Harbour guard Ryan Beesley had three points (1/2 FG, 1/1 3pt), two assists, a rebound and steal in 13 minutes in Oregon Tech’s 69-46 road win over Corban on Saturday.

The win, along with their closest rivals loss, gave the Hustlin’ Owls a share of the Cascade conference title at 25-5 overall and 15-5 in-conference, while the defending champion Oregon Tech earned the number one seed for the conference tournament and the league’s top seed for the NAIA division two national tournament from March 11-17.

Beesley also scored two points (1/5 FG, 0/4 3pt) with a rebound in nine minutes of court-time in an 80-66 road win over Concordia in Portland on Friday. Oregon Tech, ranked ninth nationally, plays Corban again on Wednesday in the first round of the Cascade tournament.

Still two places ahead of the Owls in the national division two rankings is Northwood Univeristy of Florida, including Cantabrian Ben Constable, who saw a minute of court-time in a 77-73 home win over Embry-Ribble on Saturday. The win saw the Seahawks improve to 26-4, 11-3 in The Sun conference.

Auckland’s Mada Abdelhamid provided two points (1/2 FG, 0/1 3pt), two rebounds and a block in 12 minutes in Cumberland University’s 72-69 road win over Lambuth on Thursday. The win improved the Bulldogs, 15th in the division one national rankings, to 22-4 for the season and 11-3 in the TranSouth conference.

Also national ranked is Emerging Tall Black Zane Meehl and the Azusa Pacific Cougars at number 21 in division one. Meehl went scoreless (0/1 FG, 0/1 3pt) in four minutes in Azusa’s 79-63 home win over Vanguard on Saturday, lifting the Cougs to 18-9 for the season and 11-6 in the Golden State conference.

Assistant coaches Tim Bennetts and James Lissaman saw their NCAA-division three Rose-Hulman Tech Engineers complete their regular season with a 76-58 road loss to Manchester College on Saturday, leaving them 9-16 and 4-12 in the Heartland conference.