Basketball Sweet victory for Mairehau

Press, 28 May 1979, Page 20

Basketball Sweet victory for Mairehau

Mairehau marked its belated | ; inclusion in the national club I championships . next month with ,a lack-lustre win over Checkers when the Guthrey Travel Men's first division basketball competition continued or. Saturday, i For Mairehau, excluded from the original 16 teams for the; nationals, it was a particularly I I sweet victory — Checkers hail: i been given preference earlier i ■ after a series of good games. ! | Bui Saturday's performance: was a drab, uninspiring affair! ' t hat indicated both sides will i have to work hard between now and June 19 if they are to have: any show of success. Checkers’ cause was not helped by the defection of the ! rangy Kevin Duff, sidelined with: the 'flu. But tuse " r th- o'’ ' players seemed able to stir I themselves, and me ~igi, ... score posted by a Checkers player was Alike O’Sullivans; eight. Alike Seaward was again Mairehau's trump card. He in-' volved himself in everything and I picked up 18 points, arid the rest! I of the team pitched in as well. Korrie Ritsma scored 13. The 11-: point win strengthened Afaire-I hau’s claims for inclusion in the! national championships. Thei side felt perhaps, with some: justification, that Y.AI.C.A. and Checkers had edged in ahead of it under false pretences. The domestic squabbles will now be resolved in Cowles Stadium next month, and the performances of the Christchurch teams will be watched with even more interest. Inns of the Pacific University was untroubled to waltz away with its game with Burnside, and it picked up nearly a century of points to consolidate its position at tlie top of the points table. Almost all the University team was among the points as the less experienced Burnside players withered. Jaks-H.5.0.8. scored back-to-back wins in its tw o matches on! Saturday. The scheduled clash! with Y.AI.C.A. resulted in a com-1 fortable 69-52 win, while the de-1 ferred game against Aranui 0.8. | was won 75-36. Points after Saturday’s games ■ are: University 14, Jaks-H.5.0.8. j 12; Mairehau 8. Y.AI.C.A. 8; I Checkers 6, Aranui 0.8. 6.1 Burnside 0. Dennis Barry the little Old! Boys guard, picked up five points in the Guthrey Travel! “Player of the Day” award with ! a splendid exhibition in shutting'

lout Dutchie Rademakers. Beder Hall (Mairehau) made a tine: contribution before going oft' in-:, ; jured and scored three points, while Pete Logan (University!' scored one. Easy win University 97 (G. Hare 21. P. (Logan 16. .M. Ruscoe 14. M. Her-' I riot 12. C. Stent 11, J. Caldwell 10. M. McLeod 7. R. Bishop 4. R.' Ruwhui 2), Burnside 55 (B. FL. ; field 12, J. London 12. B. Cum-■ pnack 10, R. Lee 6, A. Robson 6, ! ■G. Clancey 4, M. Hall 3, MJ ! Bosch 2i. | Inns of the Pacific University! swamped the younger Burnside! team to win by 42 points. : University was slow to settle, but midway through the first half it took off and Burnside’s slender hopes were quickly: ' extinguished. After 1J minutes. University' was up 25-16, and this lead was increased to a hefty 47-21 by I half-time. Burnside could do little with; the Univershy team bristling | with Nev Zealand representa-i i fives. The height, or lack of it,: of the Burnside team counted: against it too when it came to! icontesting rebounds. Gareth Hare had a fine game i for the competition leader, and he picked up 21 points, the highest individual tally of the match. But the University machine did not stop with Hare. Five other players reached double figures in the game, which would have amounted to little more than a training run for next month’s national club championships. Scrappy play Mairehau 61 <M. Seaward 18, K. Ritsma 13.. M. Stokes 8, J. Pickles 8, B. Hall 4, K. Curry 4 P. Kearney 4, P. Van Hout 2), Checkers 50 (M. O’Sullivan 8, R. ScahiU 7, C. Dickel 7, G. Longley 6, G. 6, L. Dixon 5, ;A. Miller 5, B. Wallcroft 4. J. Lowen 2). On-court bickering rarely helps a team raise the standard •of its play, as Checkers found to I Its cost against Mairehau. Carl Dickel’s exhortations fell on deaf ears as Checkers slumped 1 to an 11-point loss. Mairehau led narrowly at the end of a scrappy first half in which dropped or poorly directed ! passes featured prominently. ■ Checkers seemed to have lead in j Its sandshoes as the players ; shuffled about the court, missing baskets with regularity. By 10 minutes into the second

[half, Mairehau had opened a gap : of 12 points, the tall .Mike Stokes (and Korrie Ritsma contributing greatly to the cause. Checkers, stung into action, sei about salvaging the match but ; although it pulled back to 41-48 it was too late. Mairehau had the i momentum to stay’ in front, and it ran out the winner, 61-50. ' Seaward, elusive as ever, picked up 18 points to once again I head the .Mairehau scoring list. • Stokes leapt about under the ■ boards, although he was given !considerably more latitude than I he would have had if Kelvin Duff I had turned out for Checkers. One indication of the lethargy of the Checkers players was the -fact that no-one could score into double figures. ; Mairehau. even without thej . capable generalship of Gordon Phillips, was too good and it will be interesting indeed to see how I both teams fare in .June. Quick start JAKS-H.5.0.8. 69 <D. Usmar 21, | J. Wright 16, J. Hill 14. I). Barry 8. R. Teitschied 8. T. Guthrie 2>, Y.M.C.A. 52 <M. Turner 12, T. I Neumann 10, J. Bosch 10. P ; Kuipers 8. J. Rademakers 6, C.l Dobbs 4, T. .McFarlin 2i. Old Boys took time to settle! against the spirited blend of at-1 tack and defence employed by ! Y.M.C.A.. and after 11 minutes trailed 4-14. Y.M.C.A. had notched eight points before Old Boys scored its first basket, but once the lethargy had been shaken .off the game came alive. Jaks pulled back to finish the first spell tied with Y.M.C.A. on 26 points. Y.M.C.A. could not repeat its early first-half blitz at the start of the second spell, so Jaks seized the initiative and sealed the game. Five quick baskets knocked some of the sting from Y.M.C.A.’s attack, and after 10 minutes Old Boys was comfort ably in front. 53-44. It was untroubled to keep in front for the rest of the match. Dutchie Rademakers. Y.M.C.A.’s national representative, had a quiet game, and was too closely marked to be a real danger. His usual high tally of points was cut back to six, but Murray Turner iT2j and John Bosch and Tom Neumann (10 each.) could not contribute too many more, either: David Usmar had another fine game for Old Boys, and topscored with 21. John AV right's personal tally of 16 included some elegant set shots, and John

Hill scored quite a few points through tip-ins. Happy game JAKS-H.5.0.8. 75 iD. Usmar 25, M. Searle 22, T. Guthrie 12. D. Barry 12. J. Hill 2, R. Teitcheid 2i, ARANUI 0.8. 36 <B. Knops 10, A. Campbell 9. T. Costain 1 A. Atchison 4, R. Atchison 3. N. Costain 2, M. Thoms 2, 51. Stevenson 21. H. 5.0.8. treated this game as something ot a romp and n looked as though the players enjoyed themselves. Up 33-15 at half-time, the side took off in the second spell to finish with 75 points, more than twice as many as Aranui. David Usmar again scored heavily i2ai and Marty Searle hung on the end of 'the fast break all game to pick up 22 Even Tim Guthrie, a normally subdued player, threw in a fewhook shots and scored 12, as did Dennis Barry. Bert Knops was again the pick of the Aranui line-up. This evening a full round of i the competition will be played at Cowles Stadium. Mairehau. after a narrow- loss to University and fresh from'

Saturdays win aggintt Checkers, , will be anxioui to imprc'e it, i position when it meets Y M.C.A. iin the early game at 6.30 p.ra, ’j Aranui and Jaks-H.S.O B. have : another crack at each other at J 7.45 p.m. — and Checkers should ifind winning form again at » jp m. whe n it comes up against the luckless Burnside team. J Lower grade results:— Division two.—Burnside B Bagley 27; Riccaiton 54, TeachI ers College 48; University H 65, Y.M.C.A. C 31; C M S. 65. Lincoln 'College 43: Jaks 11.5.0.8 B 78, Wigram 58; Y..M.C.A B 80. Ara* nui 38; Continental 66. Mairehau B 62; C B H S. A 51, Jaks U.S O B. C 46; University B 69. Teachers J College 22; Checkers B 52, Taxes 42. ' Division four.—Checkers C 20. C.B.H.S, 17; Burnside 2. Y.M.C.A. !d o Division five Southern 7 40, Toe H 30; Hillmorton Staff 38, Rebels 6; Riccarton 34. Rangiora |B 19; Hillmorton 0.8. 75, Aranui C 8. 1 Division six.—Orients 36. Mairehau C 16; IBM 26. C T.C 16; Mt i C ook 24. Media A 16; Media B *32. Seekers B 18