Spirited Burnside topples Y.M.C.A. in basketball

Press, 17 April 1978, Page 18

Spirited Burnside topples Y.M.C.A. in basketball

A hard working and enterprising Burnside combination took its first steps up the Canterbury men’s basketball championship ladder with a convincing, 60-50, win over Y.M.C.A. in the Christchurch Boys’ High School gymnasium on Saturday. In some respects it was a surprising result. Y.M.C.A. still had the core of experience which helped it win the New Zealand club title five years ago and, with some exciting new blood, high hopes were held for it this winter. However. Y.M.C.A. was outplayed in every facet of play by Burnside, which displayed far more fire and purpose. Only in the final smin did Y.M.C.A. give a glimpse of its capabilities. Its experienced mid-court player, Bob Manthei. fired home nine points in succession in a splendid solo effort. The rest of the Y.M.C.A. players seemed to gain some inspiration from this and Burnside started to lose ground heavily. But it was far too late. A lead of 19 points was reduced I to 10 in the final 4min of play. It gave the final score some | respectability as far as Y.M.C.A. i was concerned, although it could ■ detract nothing from the fine ■ effort of the Bumside line-up. I The defending champions, I Checkers, had problems settling I down early in their game against 'Mairehau. but in the end they won comfortably enough, 66-57. Aranui. promoted from B grade | at the beginning of the season. ■ provided the other surprise of I the day by beating University, 61-45, in a very one-sided game. ' Checkers now leads the divi-

sion, but shares its unbeaten record with Jaks-High School Old Bovs, who had the bye on Saturday. Points after three rounds are: Checkers 6, Jaks 4, Maine-1 hau 4, Burnside 2. Aranui 2, Y.M.C.A. 0. University 0. Burnside, displaying far more cohesion, deserved its win over Y.M.C.A. It defended capablv and its big men gained a lot of possession from rebounding. Neil McCormick and Clive Pope both gave sterling service under the boards. Brent Cummack, the Burnside captain, made his mark with a series of splendid long shots. Y.M.C.A. was most disappointing. It was trailing, 14-4, after a dreadful start, but even then it gailed to get to grips with the situation. After 9min, Bumside was even further ahead. 18-4. Y.M.C.A. never really recovered from this. Burnside led. 36-20. at half- ( time, and for much of the second half it had a lead of 19 points. The Y.M.C.A. captain, Tom Neumann, was well marked and when he had to leave the court on five fouls smin from the end it seemed the end for Y.M.C.A. Neumann was evidently upset by the foul and when he disputed the call with the referee a technical foul was given against his team. Both free throws missed and this marked the turning point in the game. Manthei started driving with determination and shot in goal after goal. Suddenly, it all started to come together. Burnside's lead was cut in half, but all hope of saving the game had long since disappeared. 1

. A disorganised and belowLstrength University team was no match for the new-look Aranui side, which is at long last startling to develop team skills. University got away to the best start, but was quickly pegged back, and after lOmin, Aranui led, 16-7. For the remainder of the half, nothing went right for the students and when the spell ended they were trailing, 29-12. All Aranui needed was to hold its own in the second spell to gain a substantial victory and this is exactly what it did. University made a marked improvement, actually winning the half. 33-32 but Aranui always had the game properly under control.

Trevor Costain. one of three brothers in the Aranui line-up, headed the scoring with 18 points. Alan Campbell added a valuable 10. John Hay and Phil Stevenson with nine and eight points, respectively, were the best in a University team obviously missing its two injured players, Alan Munro and Mike McLeod. The return of the New Zealand representative forward. John Fairweather, helped Checkers lift their standard above earlier games. Nevertheless the coach (Carl Dickel) must have had some anxious moments in the first half. Mairehau led. 18-17. after llmin. However, Checkers then embarked on a scoring spree which left the points at 28-18 in their favour. It was the beginning of the end for Mairehau. At halftime, it was trailing. 36-27. Iti

held its own fairly wbll in the second spell but could never fully regain the lost ground and went down by a clear nine points. Gary Ottman gave Checkers a shooting edge with some outstanding long shooting, and both John Fairweather and Peter Randle worked well under the boards. This was Randle’s finest performance since moving up from a lower grade this season. The star of the Mairehau team was its player-coach. Gordon Phillips. He scored 17 points, making the most of the freedom given him by the Checkers defence which was concentrating on the high-scoring Mike Seaward. Seaward, for the first time this season, scored less than 20 points. Peter Kearney, a player in his first season of first divi- ■ sion basketball also showed up ■ well, collecting good ball off the . boards.

Scoring details:— Bumside 60 (B. Cummack 20, N. McCormick 11. A. Robson 8, R. Lee 4. C. Pope 4, G. Bain 4. B. Daniel 4, R. Scarhill 3. J. London 2) beat Y.M.C.A. 50 (T. Neumann 10, R. Manthei 8, H. Dimock 8. L. Dixon 8, P. Cook 4, M. Turner 4, A. Miller 3, G. Magon 2 K. Jones 2). Aranui 61 (T. Costain 18. A. Campbell 10, K. Ritsma 8. B. Brohm 6. A. Aitchison 6, R. Aitchison 4, N. Costain 3, R. Costain 2 G. Harrison 2, P. Hill 2) beat University 45 (J. Hay 9, P. Stevenson 8, A. Webster 7, A. Guillen 7, K. Danger 6, S. Eves 4, R. Campbell 4). Checkers 66 (G. Ottman 15. J. Fairweather 14. P. Randle 12. D. Barry 7, P. Daigneault 6. P. Ward 6. D. Ruha 5. A. Dons 1) beat. Mairehau 57 (G. Phillips 17. M.l Seaward 10, P. Kearney 8. M. Stokes 8. J. Caldwell 8. B. Searle 2, M. Belcher 2. P. van Hout 2). Other results:— Third division men—Deaf Boys A 32, Hagley 20; Checkers F 20. Lincoln B 9, Lincoln A 23. Wigram 19; Linwood H.S. 42, Deaf Boys B 16; Seekers 48, N.A.C. 30; Wanderers 26 East Shirley 21. Third division women.— Checkers C 65, Hagley B 14: Wanderers 21, Riccarton 7; Pathology 20. Lincoln 18; Brighton A 41, Linwood H.S. 30; Burnside B 27. Halswell A 21.