Technical Beats Leader Of Women’s Basketball

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32015, 16 June 1969, Page 8

Technical Beats Leader Of Women’s Basketball

Technical beat the competition leader, New Brighton, 33-22, on Saturday in the best game of the senior women’s basketball seen at the Hagley courts this season.

Technical played its usual fast game of swift combinations and New Brighton ita tactical game of tight defence. But Technical w*s more confident and able to adapt its style of play to cope with the New Brighton defence. Its goal shooters had more success, too. Technical is now equal with New Brighton at the top of the senior competition after the seventh round. Hagley A beat Teachers’ College, and Sacred Heart soundly beat Hagley B- St Nicholas and Cashmere had a lively game, but St Nicholas won clearly, 31-20. Results were:— Technical 33, New Brighton 22. Hagley A 45, Teachers’ College 19. Sacred Heart 51, Hagley B 19. St Nicholas 31, Cashmere 20. Points after the seventh round are:—New Brighton, Technical 12, Hagley A, Sacred Heart 10, Teachers' College 6, St Nicholas 4, Hagley B 2, Cashmere 0. Tense Game Players in bath teams were under pressure from the start of the Technical-New Brighton game. Technical scored Rrst and had built a eve-goal lead before New Brighton scored. M. Holland, at goal attack for Technical, played outstandingly to evade the New Brighton defence and shoot accurately. S. Rogers, at goal defence for Technical, combined well with L. Burney (goal keep) in guarding the New Brighton shooters. Bogers made several outstanding interceptions and played a consistent game of close partner defence. As the Technical score mounted to 10-4. the New Brighton defence tightened and it reduced its deficit once. L. Morris at goal attack became more accurate in shooting. By half-time. New Brighton had closed the gap to 13-14. New Brighton immediately levelled to 14-14 and put a twoman block on S. Norman to paralyse her in the circle. These tactics kept Norman from shooting, but Holland used it to Technical's advantage by clearing to the circle and shooting from the perimeter. The score remained close for the third quarter, Technical maintaining a lead. New Brighton then relaxed Its hold on Norman and resorted to man-to-man defence and blocking, but Technical gave a brilliant and unruffled display of attacking basketbell and with varied passing, S. Langrope, A. Davis and Holland outwitted Now Brighton te score.

K. Tginui.-the New Brighton centre, lacked Langrope's versatility, but C. Matoe at goal defence played a settled game to attempt to hold Holland. Technical drew away In the final 10 minutes to win 33-32. The game was refereed by Mrs A. Orangl, of Mayfield, who will referee the second test in Dunedin. Her high standard of refereeing wts appreciated.

Good Match Hagley A played a eoniletent game to beat Teachers’ College by more relaxed play and superior shooting. Teachers’ College combined well and did not give up. C. McMaster and L. Dawson shot well for Hagley, but were forced to manoeuvre the bell Lachlan. B. Loamy played her beat game at wing attack for Teachers* College, which ecored regularly, but was outclassed by half-time when the score was 22-n. M. Hanson (Hagley A) as wing attack, whose play has been improving all season, fed the bail quickly to shooters. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 44-18. Hagley's defence blocked effectively and Teachers* College scored only once more. The final score was 45-12. Easy Win HagHy B scored first and looked as if it might hold Sacred Heart In the first minutes of play. Then Hagley missed a shot at goal and Sacred Heart took the rebound and forged ahead. Hagley played M. Smeedon, a second-grade player, at goal keep. E. Price had a settled Same at goal keep for Sacred eart and maintained her position to shoot accurately and frequently. J. Harnett at goal attack was confident and fielded well with C. Carr and R. Morgan. K. O’Reilly and A. Cooper outclassed the Hagley B attacking third and A. Gee at wing defenceheld J. Wright in con-

stant check. B. McCabe (Hagley B) is continuing to play well in the circle, but could improve her accuracy in shooting. L. Hayward played a confident game at centre and with Wright held the side together, but Hagley was unable to cope with the Sacred Heart attack. The final scoro was 51-19. Second Success St Nicholas wOn its second game of the season when it beat Cashmere 31-20. It used long passes to evade the quicker style of play used by Cashmere. Both teams scored regularly, but B. Davis and G. Norton (St Nicholas) kept their team In the lead throughout. C. McCartney worked hard for Cashmere at centre, but the lack of team experience and the occasional wild pass kept Cashmere behind. St Nicholas played C. Ireland, who was Injured earlier in the season, at wing attack, and Cashmere had yet another change in Its line-up, moving F. Hogan to wing attack and replacing D. Trevalla with J. Lester at wing defence. Cashmere tired badly in the second half and A. Guerson at goal shoot was twice penalised for holding the ball too long. M. Brunton tried hard at goal keep, but could not contain Davia.