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

Thomas Patterson heading for the line. Photo Erin TaskerHalfback for the Mid Canterbury under-16 rugby team Thomas Patterson heads in for a try at the Hinds Domain on Saturday.

Patterson and his team-mates took on South Canterbury in a pre-season match and came away with a loss, but Mid Canterbury’s under-18 side fared better, beating South Canterbury 20-19.

Meanwhile, the Mid Canterbury A development side was in Oamaru on Saturday and beat North Otago 34-26, and in Culverden Mid Canterbury’s under-14.5 side lost to Buller 37-34. Mid Canterbury’s under-13 side ran rampant against Buller in Culverden though, winning 95-13.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 4 September 2019

In their return season to top level basketball in Christchurch, Mid Canterbury’s men have booked themselves a place in the final.

They took on Atami Black in the semi-finals of Canterbury Basketball’s men’s division one competition in Christchurch on Sunday, and recovered from some early nerves to come back and take it out 83-75.

The game started at pace, as both teams tried to settle into their games, and it was Atami that made the early running to shoot out to an 18-6 lead.

But as the Tricroft Mid Canterbury side’s defence started to work well, they were able to increase pressure on the ball, and slowly worked their way back into the game.

Atami led 24-7 at the end of the first quarter and the second initially started well for Mid Canterbury, but they continued to turn the ball over.

They kept fighting though and began to find the basket, eventually drawing level at 36-all.

Mid Canterbury coach Brian Kerr said the shots were dropping and Atami were getting frustrated at their offence not functioning, and Mid Canterbury finished the half with a spectacular Pip Johnston three-pointer from just inside his own half which put his side out to a 47-38 lead.

Mid Canterbury again upped the tempo in the third, stretching their lead to 13, and things were going nicely when Atami called a timeout, followed by a change from zone to man-to-man defence.

Kerr said Mid Canterbury mitigated that well, but Atami did pull a couple of baskets back to make it 68-55 at the end of the third quarter.

With a finals spot on the line, Atami started the fourth strong and dropped a couple of early baskets to reduce the gap to nine, but Mid Canterbury continued to find ways to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

Atami kept chipping away and were able to close the gap to just two, 77-75 and alarm bells were ringing for Mid Canterbury.

They had been stuck on 77 for more than four minutes, but finally they got a turnover and an easy layup which got them moving again, as their defence stepped up and shut Atami down.

Atami resorted to fouling, and Mid Canterbury were able to hit a couple of free throws to take out the game 83-75 and book a spot in the final.

Kerr said Mid Canterbury had appeared jittery early, were guilty of unforced errors and missing some easy put backs, but they improved as the game progressed.

“Their defence was again outstanding as they worked hard on shutting down the Atami playmakers,” Kerr said.

“The big difference from last week was the boxing out on defence.

They restricted Atami’s second shot options which had cost them last week.”

Johnston was again outstanding, topping the scoring with 37 points (seven 3-pointers).

“He was everywhere and constantly hit the baskets when they were needed. He had a massive game,” Kerr said.

“And big Jason Greig had a big offensive third quarter but caused Atami a lot of headaches.”

Greig finished with 14 points, while Nick Fechney and Gareth Hunt both had high work rates and finished with nine points each.

“All the boys that got on the court made good contributions, especially in keeping that defensive intensity level high.

“It was definitely what made the difference,” Kerr said.

Mid Canterbury will now take on Atami Casa de Banos in the division one final in Christchurch on September 14.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 3 September 2019