Harbour On The Radar
Tagged in: Tournaments
Since a first round pool play loss, the North Harbour under-15 boys squad has lived under the radar. And coach Tony Webster would rather keep it that way.
Unfortunately, his team produced an impressive 82-62 quarterfinal win over previously unbeaten Counties Manukau on day three of the Oreo Under-13 and Under-15 National Championships in Rotorua on Wednesday.
With a balanced offence, led by Anamata Haku with 17 points, Harbour hustled their way into Thursday’s semifinals, where they will another undefeated team in South Island champions and top seeds Nelson.
“I’d rather we stayed under the radar,” said Webster, the Harbour Heat’s National Basketball League coach.
“We just wanted to go back to what we do best and that’s executing, running our offence and playing aggressive defence.”
Harbour, who also got 14 points from Adam Whybro and 10 points from both Aramis Dennan and Matt Lacey, led throughout against an athletic Counties team, who got 34 points from Josh Young. Harbour used their defensive pressure to spark a 22-14 third quarter to take a 14-point lead that held up through the fourth.
“We got a couple of their guys in foul trouble and we just stepped up. We know about playoffs style. It’s do or die now. I think we just wanted it more today.”
It has been do or die for Harbour since Monday afternoon, following a surprise two-point loss to fellow under-15 boys semifinalist Hutt Valley, and the team has responded with comfortable wins over Mid Canterbury and Canterbury to reach the quarters.
“You know how kids are, they just forget things. They don’t take things as hard as the coach. I was probably the only one that lost any sleep from that game.
“Hutt Valley were a bit smaller than us and a bit quicker than us and we tried to play their game. We needed to set things up and run our game. We’re very much a half-court team. We like structure.
“We needed to play with intensity. We needed to be out there not to just play the game.”
Harbour, with the bulk of the squad that Webster guided to the under-13s final last year, will meet Nelson on Thursday night for a place in the final, after Nelson easily accounted for Wellington 80-57 in their quarter.
After a pair of close results in pool play, Nelson opened up on Wednesday, edging out to an 11-point at halftime and stretching it to 21 points with a quarter to play, with guard Scott Cameron scoring all his 39 points in three quarters before resting on the bench.
“He does it quite a bit, he’s 6-foot-2, so a lot of teams find him tough to guard with smaller guards,” Nelson coach Tony Shallcrass said.
“We got on the big court for the first time. Finally playing on the full court for the first time really helped us, especially our wings out wide . . . we’re very unassuming, very low profile. We’re not a real hyped up team. Coming this far is a real achievement.”
Hutt Valley, the fourth qualifiers from zone three, reached the last four in the country with a 93-73 win over Whangarei, getting 27 points from forward Tyler Tane and 20 points from guard Kurt Robinson.
Although not blessed with height, Hutt Valley used their aggressive full-court man-to-man defence to force Whangarei, like their previous three opponents, into turnovers and to disrupt their offence.
“It’s all gravy now,” coach Joe Hemi said. “Honestly I don’t know how far we’re going to go, we’re just riding it.”
In the other semifinal, Hutt Valley will meet Waikato, who defeated Massey 89-72, with Kurt Heatherley top-scoring with 26 points and Aaron Keppler adding 24 points.
Brandon Gleaves scored 29 points as Canterbury advanced to the under-13 boys semifinals with a 79-61 win over Hutt Valley. They will face Wellington, who defeated Waitakere City 69-63, with Tarewa Harris scoring 22 points.
The other under-13 boys semifinal will feature North Harbour and Waikato Black. Harbour got by Massey 104-84, with Jack Salt going for 28 points and Niko Morales 27, while Waikato Black survived a 42-point effort from Jaylen Gerrand in a 63-59 win over Hibiscus Coast.
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