Boystown girls scrape through

Press, 1 July 1978, Page 18

Boystown girls scrape through

Boystown Levis (Auckland) all but threw away a place in the semi-finals of the Hanes New Zealand women's club basketball championship with a mixture of impressive and mediocre play in the second half of its match against Hadleigh Homes (Napier) at Cowles Stadium.

1 Lt was a do-or-die match for Boystown. It had to beat Hadleigh. the defending champion, Ito force its way into the seniii finals on goal differential. This d did with a narrow, ) 39-36, win. Both teams and TenInis (Nelson) finished with two wins in the section, but Tennis. I with an inferior goal average to the North Island teams dropped ■ out. Hadleigh finished top of the i section and wil] meet Club 77 • 'Hamilton) in one semi-fina] this : evening and Boystow n will play i Otago University in the other. Boystown bad to take- the play to Hadleigh in the final section game of the tournament and this it did superbly in the first half. For the first 10 minutes the scores remained level, then, with several nippy interceptions and good rebounding, Boystown upset Hadleigh’s rhythm and opened a four point lead. ; By half-time the lead wag extended to seven points and it could have been nine in the final seconds when an interception left Boystown with a three-to-one situation on attack but a bad pass squandered two points. It was clear from the outset of the second half that Hadleigh | had tightened its defence and it i was its turn to harass Boys I town. Mid-way through the half lit had fought back to within a : point at 27-26 thanks to two fine i shots by Jenny Mather. Boystown retaliated with a : basket but it was disallowed, a decision which drew a V sign i from one of the Boystown play- | ers. This was indicative of the , tension throughout the match. In the first half there was a small | scuffle between two players. Then Hadleigh drew ahead. 3432. bin not before its New Zealand representative. Cheryl Fleet was fouled off. Hadleigh suffered | a further blow when its captain ' Maree Brunton was fouled off with two minutes remaining. The i loss of these two players cost : i Hadleigh dearly. Sue Newlands, the top scorerj for Boystown levelled the scores’ at 34-aJI with two free shots.: then Margaret Johns scored! three points with a goal and a bonus. It was the break Boystown needed and splendid defence in the last 3min cost Hadleigh possession twice because they could not shoot within the 30 second limit on possession. Another fine basket by Newlands with 30sec remaining, sewed up the game but Boystown deservedly incurred the wrath of its coach. Don Orndorff, when it allowed Hadleigh to intercept a throw-in in the last lOsec. Results and scorers were;— Boystown Levis 39 (S. Newlands 19, M. Johns 13, R. Te Hira 5. J. Rosenbrook 2) beat Hadleigh Homes 36 (L Gillies 12. M. Brunton and J. Mather 6 D. Robertson. C. Fleet, C. Cook all 4). Y.M.C.A. Akarana 38 (B. Tani-i ora 12. L. Milsteed 6. B. Williams 5. C. Heremia, A Kose. T. Puial all 4, A. Polo 2. T. Webster D ‘ beat Centrals 36 (B. Gilkison and; S. McKee 10 L. Houston 6. J.‘ Farrell 4. J. Sharp G. Rapson. C. Griffin al] 2). Otago University 40 (S. Den-' uess 10 R. Dorn an 9. J. Me-' Meeken, M. Grayburn. T. Rus-

sell all 6. C. Ross 2, F. Harrison 1) beat Club 77 33 (C. Nou wens 12. M. Gilchrist and R. Hamp stead 6 B. Smith 5. M. Forsythe 4).

Tennis 52 (K, Hoddy 20. N.I Wright 18, T. Wright 8. L. Hannen 3, N. Baylis 2. D. Woodhouse I) beat Greenbay Steelers 38 (H. Amohanga 8. L. Parkes and M ’ Cleverly 7 J. Sutherland and R.l Smith 5. R. Doyle. S. Munro. D. Eastwood all 2).