Basketball New Zealand

AA Secondary Schools National Championships

As Hamilton’s Fraser High were shooting defending boys champions St Patrick’s College out of the game, it was no surprise to coach Jeff Green.

Fraser High were trey-mendous, hitting 17 three-pointers as the zone two champions turned the boys competition on its head with a 96-85 win over St Pat’s in an intense final pool game at the AA Secondary Schools National Championships – presented by Furnware – in Palmerston North on Wednesday.

In a game that had championship game written all over it, Fraser got more than half their points (51) courtesy of the long-ball, with shooting guard Matt Aird hitting seven and Coach Green’s under-sized son Daniel Green dropping six.

“That’s what we always do,” said Green. “Our shooting percentage wasn’t great, we just got the shots that mattered.”

Aird hit back-to-back-to-back triples as Fraser took over the game in the fourth quarter, then Doug Whitefield and Ezra Nikora followed it with two more three-balls to put St Pat’s away.

“We live and die by that. We don’t have a recognized big man, we live with our shooters. I told our main shooter Matt Aird that it’s not the nine shots you miss, it’s the next one that you might make that will win the game. They’ve got to have that shooters mentality and we have a lot of guys that can shoot the ball well.”

Aird finished with a game-high 36 points, while Green had 28, negating 29 points from St Pat’s guard Brook Ruscoe, who dominated the first half when the Wellingtonians led by double figures, with their fast-break clicking.

Fraser, behind 10 straight points from Aird, pulled ahead with a 26-12 third period, with Green draining a long three at the buzzer.

With the win, Fraser High completed their unbeaten run through pool play and ended St Pat’s 12-game national tournament winning streak, winning pool A to set up a quarterfinal match-up with New Plymouth Boys High on Thursday and set themselves apart as new tournament favourites.

“It didn’t really matter, win or lose we didn’t worry about who we avoided. Westlake are lucky they avoided us,” Green said.

Outside the Fraser-St Pat’s game, the loudest cheer of the day came from New Plymouth Boys celebrating Shirley Boys High’s only win in pool play, over Mana College. The 92-84 result saw Mana eliminated from a potential three-way playoff for the second pool C quarterfinal spot, leaving New Plymouth to move on to the top eight over Christchurch’s St Andrew’s College.

Second seeds Otago Boys High denied last year’s finalists Nelson College a passage back to the playoffs, ending their title chances with a 78-70 victory on Wednesday afternoon, while themselves moving through to the quarters at 5-0.

Otago Boys, the only remaining South Island boys school, got 21 points from Ethan Carruthers and 20 points from Sam King to move the Dunedin side into a quarterfinal against Rangitoto College.

Pool C winners Westlake Boys High, who have almost quietly gone 5-0 in pool play to be one of seven teams unbeaten after three days, will meet St Pat’s in the pick of the boys quarterfinals, a repeat of the 2006 title game, won by Westlake.

Junior Tall Black Rob Loe dropped in 33 points and Scott Campbell scored 20 points as Westlake knocked St Andrew’s out of title contention with an 87-61 win.

Brothers Jared Whippy (22) and Joshua Whippy (24) combined for 46 points as Church College completed pool play unbeaten in pool D, cruising over Wellington College in their final to book a quarterfinal duel with St John’s College in another all-Waikato showdown.

Rangitoto College became the third school, joining Church and Fraser, to send both boys and girls teams into the quarters, doing it tough but getting their with a 68-59 win over hometown Palmerston North Boys High.

Junior Tall Black Duane Bailey top-scored with 28 points to see Rangitoto progress, all this despite playing with their backs to the wall after losing their opening game of the tournament to Church. Rangitoto got a crucial win over then-unbeaten Wellington College on Tuesday afternoon that paved their way through.

“That loss to Church College put us in a really awkward situation,” Rangitoto coach Lawrence Levi Lianda said.

“It put us in a situation where we had to win the rest of our games. I think after that the boys just did the basics well, reducing their turnovers in each game and getting more rebounds.”

2008 AA Secondary Schools National Championship Results

Game On - Daily News (98KB pdf)