Indoor Basketball New Rules Played In Men’s Matches

Press, Volume C, Issue 29510, 11 May 1961, Page 5

Indoor Basketball New Rules Played In Men’s Matches

Although the three A grade men's indoor basketball matches played on Tuesday evening in the King Edward Barracks had their bright moments tor spectators, the play was not of a very high standard.

The players were playing under the new rules, adopted after the Rome Olympic Games, for the first time and consequently there was some small excuse for errors and bad play. However, the rules changes are not great and should not have made much difference. With three rounds in the A grade competition now completed. Rex A and B.G.H. A remain undefeated. University A is in third position with two wins and a drawn game. Detailed results are:— B.G.H. A 48, L.D.S. 39. Rex A 20, Y Boys A 17. University A 47, Wigram A 37. Teachers* College defaulted to First N.Z. Regiment B.G.H. A v. L.D.S. Only when LJ2.S. had one of its men fouled off and had to finish part of the game with four players did B.G.H. A gain the upper hand to win the closest struggle of the evening. 48-39. Throughout the game both teams were exceptionally even. Bc; H. appeared the better drilled team, but its shooting, especially in the early stages, sometime* left much to be desired. L.D.S. played a slower, more solid type of game than did 8.G.H.. and on more than one occasion it paid dividends. The shooting of the Mormons was good. At half-time L.DS. had a very alight lead by 19 points to Id. Three minutes after the resumption of play, however, the score was again even at 20-»U. Half way through the second spell L.D.S. lost Little, and having no replacement was overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers. For L.D.S. T. Demars played an outstanding game. He was rarely out of position, and his shooting was excellent. He top scored with 15 point*. R. Entwistle. a Canterbury representative. also played well, scoring 14 of his side’s points. Scores were:— 8.G.H.: R. Entwistle 14. M. Mac Kay 10. R. Thomson 12. R. Burnby 6, D. Ellison 6, L.D.S.: T. Demars 15, R. Zollinger 8. C. Lange 6. Johnson 6. Little 4. Rex A V. Y-Boys A In a very dull match with few highlights, Rex A beat YBoys A by 20 points to 17. Both teams were very even, but neither attempted to speed the game up and throw the ball about, in spite of encouragement from the sidelines.

Rex was slightly superior for most of the game, and at halftime led by 10 points to 7 With five minutes to go the fingl result was still very much tn doubt with the acore at 15-

13 in Rex’f favour. A lastnun ute rally by Y-Boys failed, and Rex managed to take the match and retain its unbeaten record.

There were no outstanding players in the game. Top scorer was A. Berzins (Rex) with seven points. C. Harley (YBoys) scored six. Scores were

Rex A: A. Berzins 7, R. Smith 5. P. Fox 5, A. Harbolt 2, P. Ward 1.

Y-Boys: C. Harley 6. K. Ewing 4. J. Dalton 3. A. Pollitt 2. K Baker 2.

University A v. Wigram A Perhaps the fastest game of the evening was that between University A and Wigram A. University was definitely the better team but Wigram battled back creditably to go down by the reasonable margin of 47 points to 37.

Led by the Canterbury representative. W. Smith. University gave a good exhibition of ball control and accurate shooting. Smith was in fine form, scoring a total of 18 points and being instrumental in many more. He was well supported by another Canterbury representative. R. Zachariassen.

The highest standard of play seen during the evening was in this match. Both teams attempted to set a fast pace and keep the game alive. As in the other two games, there were one or two dead periods. For Wigram, S. Tunnicliffe • the outstanding player. His ball handling and general positional play was good. He was always on hand to take the loose ball and scored 19 points. S. Belcher was reliable. Scores were:—

University: W. Smith 18, J. Grocott 13, R. Zachariassen 8, H. Thorpe 14. W. Wardholmes 2.

Wigram: S. Tunnicliffe 19. S. Belcher 8. J. Caudwell 6. M Bach 2. J. Clift 2.

Senior Reserve Results of senior reserve matches are:—

B.G.H. C 46. M.I.A. 19; University C 19. Stars A 16; B.G.H. B 32, Ist N.Z. Regiment B 20; University B 25, Y-Boys B 20.