Can Canty basketballers halt Otago's winning run?

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32604, 12 May 1971, Page 14

Can Canty basketballers halt Otago's winning run?

(By

R. 0. DEW)

A FTER its convincing win over Otago last Friday, the Canterbury men’s basketball team must now set its sights firmly on winning the South Island championship tournament, to be held at Nelson during Queen’s Birthday week-end. Otago has held the title for the last seven years in succession and there is no doubt that Canterbury this season has players with sufficient natural ability to break this great run. However, Otago’s playercoach. the former New Zealand player, D. Sharp, is confident that his team will make it eight in a row at Nelson. He was not unduly upset over the defeat of his team last Friday—quite the reverse. It was, he said, little more than an Otago C team. Many of the players were juniors and he had not expected it to win.

The evergreen, L. Pearson. is still scoring huge individual totals in Dunedin club basketball and is expected to rejoin the team for its remaining matches. Sharp, side-lined last Friday with a minor leg injury, wilt be back too. These two will be forced to carry a lot on their shoulders for their five New Zealand trialists, who were absent last Friday, will not be available for the South Island championship either. The final clinic for the New Zealand squad will be held the same week-end and the team to play Australia in the Olympic qualifying series will be announced immediately afterwards.

Canterbury will have two at the national clinic. J. Fairweather and H. Dim--mock. But the province has never had greater depth of ability and it should be able to field a very formidable combination in the cham-

pionship games. The prospect of K. Hessell, a New Zealand representative last season, returning to the team for the tournament should also make a great difference. Nevertheless, on the evidence of last Friday’s game, Canterbury will nave to put in a lot of hard work in the time remaining. It must have one of the tallest teams in the country and yet it fared very badly in the rebound department, mainly through poor positioning. Blocking out on rebounds was poor. Handling and shooting also have to improve. The team needs more spirit and aggression, too, although the little American, B. Bredahl, showed that he had the ability to get things moving once he had settled down.

On the home front, Canterbury has a bright season ahead. A four-way tournament against Wellington, Otago and Nelson is being organised for Christchurch on July 10 and 11 and on July 15 it will match itself against the New Zealand team in Cowles Stadium. Other home fixtures are likely to be arranged later in the season.

It will have another chance to gauge its pros-

pects at South Island level on May 22 when it travels to Dunedin for matches against Otago and Southland. For this encounter, all three teams should be at full strength. Before this, next Saturday, it will play against Marlborough, Hutt Valley and Nelson at Blenheim in the Canadian Goodwill Tournament

The ultimate aim for the team this season is to win the national tournament, to be held at Palmerston North from August 30 to September 3. It is many years since the province won this event but this season, with the quality of the players available, it must have a fighting chance.