Basketball New Zealand

Coach Albie Ellis works the huddle for under-15 boys finalists Waikato

All week long, no team had managed to handle Hutt Valley’s aggressive press defence. That was until Waikato fronted.

With their offence able to effectively avoid the pressure for the first three quarters, Waikato held on for a 93-77 semifinal win over Hutt Valley on Thursday to get a shot at the under-15 boys title at the Oreo Under-13 and Under-15 National Championships in Rotorua.

Guard Aaron Keppler top-scored with 25 points as Waikato used a 28-14 second quarter to pull away, setting up a final match-up with Nelson, who accounted for North Harbour 69-64 in the other semifinal.

Hutt Valley, not blessed with height but blessed with a team of hustlers, closed within nine points in the final quarter as their all-court pressure finally caused Waikato problems, forcing turnovers and turning up the heat.

“Even we struggled at times,” Waikato coach Albie Ellis said.

“We had a simple plan, it was to keep it away from their press and reverse the ball a lot. We have a lot of skilled players who can handle it. We just wanted to slow it down and run our stuff because they wanted to run.”

Waikato had little trouble beating the press in the first half, scoring freely and drawing fouls on Hutt Valley’s leading scorers Kurt Robinson and Tyler Tane in the opening quarter as they opened a six-point lead.

The Mooloos stretched it out to 20 points by halftime, thanks largely to Keppler and Kurt Heatherly, who went for 14 points, while Jershon Hereaka finished with 16 points for Waikato and Tane top-scored for Hutt with 16 points.

Guard Scott Cameron scored 26 points and Ollie Shallcrass 16 points, including three big threes, as Nelson held off a fourth quarter challenge from Harbour.

Nelson led by seven points after the second and third quarters but lost the lead early in the fourth on a three from Anamata Haku, before Shallcrass hit the first of his two fourth quarter bombs and Cameron scored seven points to close out the win.

The South Islanders dominated Harbour on the boards but still had to sweat out a missed Matt Lacey three with the clock winding down to avoid going to overtime.

“Nelson have got a great point guard, great bigs, great team, nothing fancy, just good team offence. I haven’t really seen them that much but we’ve got good guards and good wings but we’ve just got to box out and play good D,” Ellis said.

Nelson coach Tony Shallcrass made no secret his team would try to slow the game down to avoid getting in a running match with the physical and athletic Waikato boys.

“Waikato are a not too dissimilar team to us,” Shallcrass said. “They’re tall and play big inside and play good defence. They’re a well organised team.

“We’re probably going to struggle to match-up against them. They’re bigger than us and they’ve got a deep bench. Hopefully we can match-up well in the half-court. We need to rebound well and get the three going, shooting well from the outside.”

Meanwhile, Canterbury’s Brandon Gleaves dropped 33 points on Wellington to advance to an under-13 boys final against North Harbour, who beat Waikato Black 79-58.

Wellington gave the tall Canterbury line-up their biggest challenge of the tournament, leading by seven points at halftime and still by two points with a quarter to play.

But Canterbury flicked the switch in the fourth, out-scoring Wellington 22-6, with Gleaves scoring 10 points, to turn the game into a rout.

For Harbour, a 22-10 first quarter sent them on their way to a comfortable win over Waikato in the other semi. Niko Morales top-scored for Harbour, who held a double-digit lead for the majority of the game, while Jack Salt put in 15 points.