Day Four of the Lower North Island Secondary School Tournament saw all teams have a very important cross over game first up in the morning.  This was to determine semi-final spots for the afternoon game, with the last and final game to be played Friday morning.

B GRADE:

Woodford House and Sacred Heart College battled it out for a top four sem-final spot in B Grade, with Woodford taking the win 29 – 22.  Woodford then went on to play Onslow College in the semi-final and had an amazing come back to win the game 34 – 32.  This win also confirms their A Grade promotion for 2019, they will play Rua Mano in the final at 11.30am on Court 2.

Sacred Heart after their loss to Woodford, now palying for 5^th– 8^thposition went on to win their semi-final convincingly against Bishop Viard 43 – 28.  Tomorrow they will play off for 5^th/6^thposition against Central Hawke’s Bay College at 10.30am on Court 9.

Central Hawke’s Bay lost their cross over game with Wairoa College by just one goal 28 – 27, which put them out of top four contention. In their semi-final they beat St Peters College 33 – 24, so as mentioned earlier now play Sacred Heart in the play off for 5^th/6^th.

After the win against Central Hawke’s Bay College, Wairoa College went on to play Rua Mano in their semi-final, which they lost by only one goal 32 – 31.  They now play off for 3^rdposition and the last promotional spot to A Grade tomorrow at 10.30am against Onslow College on Court 14.

Iona College had a great win in their first game against Waiopehu College 50 – 22 and also had a win in their semi-final against Otaki to go to the play off for 9^th/10^thposition against Nga Tawa on Court 11 at 10.30am.

Fantastic results for our B Grade teams with all five teams finishing in the top ten, with one definite and one further possible promotion to A Grade.

A GRADE:

Napier Girls High School's first game of the day against Sacred Heart Lower Hutt was a real nail bitter.  They managed to take the win 33 – 30, to confirm a top four finish and a place at the NZ Secondary School tournament in October.  This created a very special atmosphere on the final whistle, both on the court and the sideline.  This can be seen on the HBN facebook page, as we went live for this game. Apologies in advance for some of the commentary as it was just so intense, I even dropped my phone not long after the final whistle.  

The semi-final was set and they took on Manukura to try and make the grand final of A Grade. Sticking with them at the beginning of the game, a very strong Manukura ended up taking the win 42 – 33.  Unfortunately Napier were missing a couple of their players for this game, however they will be taking on Wellington East Girls in the play off for third position at 10.30am on Court 1.  This is still an outstanding result and the best a HB team has done in quite some time.

Hastings Girls High School went down to Samuel Marsden Collegiate this morning 30 – 26, then won their semi-final against Kapiti College 31 – 20.  Hastings will play off for 13^th/14^thposition tomorrow against St Orans College on court 8 at 10.30am.

Havelock North High School will be playing off for 21^st/2^2nd position tomorrow against Fielding High School on Court 3 at 9.30.  Havelock lost their fist game against Lytton High School 33 – 29, and the results for their semi-final were un-available at the time of writing this.

Taradale who have had a challenging tournament managed to stay out of the bottom two after losing their first game against Sacred Heart New Plymouth 36 – 20 first up.  They then had a win over Horowhenua College 30 – 24 in their semi-final.  Tomorrow they play off for 29^th/30^thagainst Aotea College on Court 3 at 8.30am.  This is a must win game to avoid relegation to B Grade for 2019.

Tomorrow I look forward to seeing more teams in their final games of the tournament, although with so many games at 10.30am this may difficult.  I will try and go Facebook live for parts of as many games as possible, however the focus will be Woodford in the B Grade final and NGHS playing for third position. Was great to see more than 50 people watching live today and thousands of views of the three videos posted.

The other highlight of tomorrow will be the announcement of the tournament teams, with our teams doing so well in both grades, there is hopefully some of our girls named.  Lets hope the weather and the bodies hold up!

Tina Arlidge

Operations Manager

Article added: Thursday 06 September 2018