St Pat’s-Fraser Sequel
Tagged in: Tournaments
St Patrick’s College versus Hamilton’s Fraser High was the best game of pool play. And now we get the repeat.
With tough semifinal wins on Friday night, defending champions St Pat’s and undefeated Fraser High booked a rematch for the boys championship on Saturday at the 2008 AA Secondary Schools National Championships – presented by Furnware – in Palmerston North.
Fraser handed St Pat’s their only loss this week and first loss at the nationals since the 2006 final with a 96-85 win on Wednesday afternoon, a game that began with competing hakas, played with high emotion and decided in a shootout.
“They’re the defending champs and they’re smarting because we beat them in pool play. They’ve got some guys that have huge experience in moments like these,” said Fraser High coach Jeff Green, gunning for his first national schools title.
“If my kids play good offence and good offence we have a chance but we’re big underdogs. This is St Pat’s third final in a row, they’ve won one and lost one, so it’s their championship to lose. We have to win it off them.”
Fraser unloaded a three-point barrage on St Pat’s in their first meeting, hitting 17 triples for 51 of their 96 points, including seven from Matt Aird and six from Daniel Green, as they blitzed the trophy holders in the second half.
“We need to get a hand up in their face,” St Pat’s coach Pete Ruscoe said. “I think we were a bit soft last time. I just said to them ‘how many times did Michael Jordan lose game six but win a game seven?’.”
St Pat’s (6-1) were more impressive in winning through to the school’s third straight final, with an 86-71 win over upstart Rangitoto College, getting 26 points from leading scorer Brook Ruscoe and 17 points from Micah Lepaio.
Up 16 points at halftime, St Pat’s stretched the gap to 26 points by three-quarter time and appeared to be cruising when they extended the lead out past 30 points early in the fourth period.
With coach Ruscoe getting his starters out of the game, Rangitoto, who got a game-high 29 points from Marko Alexander, gave St Pat’s a fright, getting within 11 points before losing ground again.
Rangitoto’s Junior Tall Black Duane Bailey again found foul trouble in the first half, his time on the bench coinciding with St Pat’s scoring run in the second quarter. St Pat’s captain Jake Ashby, along with Tipene Friday, helped St Pat’s take control at the defensive end and on the offensive glass.
“He’s the heart and soul of the team. He’s our captain and when he gets angry the rest follow,” Ruscoe said. “He crashes the boards and then is the first one back on D. He’s not naturally built for basketball but he makes up for it with heart.”
Fraser High (7-0) had to grind it out on an off shooting night to get by a scrappy Church College in an all-Hamilton semifinal, making crucial baskets in the last two minutes to win 77-72 to reach the school’s first final.
Shooting guard Aird, who top-scored with 36 points, hit the game’s biggest shot, a three-pointer from the wing to give Fraser the lead for good, 74-72, with 1:42 remaining. Doug Whitefield hit a runner in the lane in the final minute and the D locked down on Church on the final three possessions to get the win.
The speed of Church’s run-and-gun offence, led by Jared Whippy, Jivarne Joseph, Arana Kenny and Josh Whippy troubled Fraser from the outset, their hustle disrupting their usually free-scoring offence and taking the aggressiveness to Fraser.
Church, who got 23 points from Jared Whippy and 20 points from Joseph, led for much of the game, were up 46-41 at halftime and even led inside the final three minutes until a three-point play from Phillip Green and Aird’s dagger three.
“We shot terribly tonight but give credit to their defence. Daniel didn’t shoot well but he had someone in his jock-strap the whole game. Our experience showed through in the big moments. We have guys that aren’t afraid to take the big shots and play the big defence.”
So will St Pat’s versus Fraser: The Sequel be as good as the orginal? And will it follow the same storyline?
Green said: “If we play like we played today, we’ll get blown off the court. We just have to execute well. Good shots come off good execution and good shots come off good defence too.”
Ruscoe said: “We’ve got to box out. They got 20 offensive rebounds against us the other day and we helped them out by turning it over 20 times. We can’t do that again.”
