Hastings Boys’ High School Junior A Basketball team entered the Western Heights tournament in Rotorua recently.  Most of the North Island’s top teams compete in this tournament.  HBHS confirmed they were contenders in pool play beating Hawera High School 80-7, Cambridge High School 69-34 and Wellington College 63-47.

The semi final against Opunake High School produced a great battle with the half time score being 34 all. HBHS pulled away in the second half winning 70-51.  In the final, Hastings Boys’ faced Rotorua Boys’ High School.  HBHS had a poor start letting the home town support overwhelm them. Down 8 at halftime the team talked about the game plan which had got them this far in the tournament. They came out and executed with pressure defence. This provided the opportunity for fast break points with HBHS taking over and winning 41-36.  Hastings Boys’ are the first ever Hawke’s Bay School to win the tournament in its 17 year history.

After such a defeat we knew that the next game was a must-win.  Playing Western Heights we had to focus on tight defence while improving our scoring percentage.  The boys dominated the defensive and offensive boards producing a strong 40 – 27 win.  Tiki’s influence under the boards giving him player of the game.

This should have been enough to put us second in the pool however Westlake somehow lost to St Johns.  With a worse points differential it put us in third place needing to play off for 5th and 6th place.  We played Kelston Boys (Auckland) and showed the quality of the whole team.  Winning our final game 39 – 22.  Mataeus (18 points) was declared player of the game and our tournament player.

Interestingly enough St Johns beat Wellington College in their Semi-final to advance to play Westlake in the final.  Westlake made amends by winning the final convincingly.

Duane Clinton
Head Coach, Junior A Basketball