Ashburton College’s senior basketball teams both finished their respective Schick Premiership AA secondary schools’ zone four tournaments on a high on Saturday.The Ashburton College senior A girls won their final game of the tournament in Nelson against Papanui High School 68-43 to finish 13th overall, having beaten St Margarets College 61-57 to go through to the 13th spot play-off.

The boys meanwhile played off for 15th spot against Timaru Boys’ High School and came out on top 88-73.

Earlier in the ninth to 16th spot play-offs they’d lost narrowly to Christchurch Boys’ High School on Friday 79-76, before going down 98-65 to St Thomas of Canterbury College on Saturday morning.

The basketball tournaments were the last of the 2019 secondary schools’ tournament week involving Ashburton College sides to wrap up.

Most of the secondary school hockey tournaments around the country finished up on Friday, with Ashburton College’s girls’ first XI finishing fifth in the Jenny McDonald Cup tournament in Cromwell, beating Tairi College 1-0 in the fifth place play-off.

Ashburton College’s boys’ first XI also won their last game, beating Waimea College in the play-off for ninth spot at the Johnson Cup tournament in Invercargill, while their second XI finished sixth in the Coaches Cup tournament on home turf in Ashburton.

They lost their fifth place play-off against St Peters College from Gore 4-0, while a penalty shootout was needed to decide the tournament’s final after Nayland College and Lincoln High School were all even at 2-all at full time.

Lincoln went on to win the shoot out 4-3 to claim the Coaches Cup.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 8 September 2019