Pearls Get Their Wish
Southland Pearls coach Richard Dickel wanted another shot at Wellington.
Well, he got it.
The defending champion Pearls will have to get by a rampant Wellington side to win back-to-back women’s titles at the Oreo Open and Wheelchair Basketball National Championships in Levin on Sunday.
Wellington handed the defending champions their only loss in group play, a resounding 87-53 result on Friday night at the Horowhenua Events Centre, that took Southland on the brink of elimination.
The Pearls recovered to beat Rotorua by 16 points to book their place in the semifinals, then took care of the previously unbeaten Hutt Valley squad that topped group B 93-58 to book a rematch with the girls from the Capital.
“I said I’d like to have another chance at them and we got it,” Dickel said.
“Hopefully we can play a lot better than we did against them the first time. We’ve got nothing to lose and they’ve been the ones talking about how they’re going to win it.”
Southland started the tournament slowly but have turned it on when it matters.
Southland, inspired after watching the Stags 43-7 win over North Harbour in the Air New Zealand Cup, led by 21 points at halftime and stretched it to as many as 29 points in the third period behind the aggressive play of guards Elise Cassidy and Melinda Martin-Donnelly, and inside play of Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickitt.
Cassidy top-scored with 19 points, while Gemma Curry 17 points and Martin-Donnelly 16 points, while Lisa Scott was Hutt Valley’s best with 19 points.
“Our problem is that we haven’t played enough games. We’re starting to get it right now. We’re getting better and better each game and hopefully we can bring it in the final.”
Melissa Letoa scored a game-high 27 points, including six three-pointers as Wellington improved to 4-0 in Levin with a 81-53 demolition of Massey in the other semifinal to move a game away from the title.
Letoa and Shiana-Rose Harris terrorised Massey, spotting up on the wings as Wellington made six straight threes in the first quarter to lead 21-16. The long-range shooting continued, the team hitting 17 combined, and finishing the game off with five consecutive triples.
Harris, who hit five threes of her own, finished with 19 points.
Defending men’s champions Waitakere also recovered from the brink of elimination to qualify for Sunday morning’s semifinals.
Following their 55-54 buzzer-beater loss to Kiwihoops University, Waitakere recovered to rout Western Bay of Plenty, then defeated previously unbeaten Cardinals of Palmerston North 70-53 in a must-win situation to move on.
Gobindar Samdhu top-scored with 24 points for Waitakere, who took control of a tight game late in the third period and stretched it out in the final minutes to take the top spot in group A on points differential.
Waitakere had a +16 points differential, to Cardinals’ +12 and University’s -28, after all three teams finished group play with 2-1 records. University knew their fate before their final group game, but went on to blow-out Western Bay of Plenty 93-47.
Atami of Christchurch and Morehu Easts of Wellington punched their semifinal dance tickets with morning wins over Cambridge Fighting Irish and Massey respectively, then went at each other for group B bragging rights, Atami getting 24 points from captain Richie Howell and eeking out a 71-69 win.
Atami, after extending their season-long winning streak to 24 games, face Cardinals, while Waitakere meet Morehu Easts in the men’s semifinals, both at 10am.
Canterbury continued their dominance in the wheelchair competition, defeated their nearest challengers Waikato 75-39, with Reo Lewis top-scoring with 34 points, and then routing Kapiti-Horowhenua 95-14.
