Jaks win place in semi-finals

Press, 22 June 1979, Page 20

Jaks win place in semi-finals

Jaks-High School Old Boys, the top seed and titleholder. has won a place in the semi-finals of the Old Crow national men’s club basketball championships at Christchurch thanks to a brilliant sustained burst of scoring midway through the second half. The team had what the player-coach. Tim Guthrie, freely admitted was a bad first" half against another Christchurch side. Inns of the Pacific University and was down five points. 22-27, at the break. In the second half, though, both the passing and the shooting was more accurate and Jaks went from 33-36 down after 6 minutes to 4736 up. 14 points in a row being scored in a six-minute period. Eventually they won, 61-58. Much of the reason for the revival was the superb play of the Jaks forward, Dave Usmar, who won the "‘player of the match” award with" his tally of 16 points. Guthrie was also slotting outside shots at appropriate times.

University was obviously Stunned by this onslaught but. still managed to get back in the game with some fine shooting by Carl Stent (13) and Robert Ruwhui (14)

Twice University reduced the margin to one point, only for Jaks to again get useful leads and the crunch came with 3min left at 55-50 when the lofty Hill, a New Zealand representative, came back on the court and scored three goals. Guthrie paid tribute to the determination of his players. “We haven’t had a good game yet,” he said. “Id hate to think what will happen when we: do.” Jaks must now be favoured to take the final, something that appeared rather unlikely earlier in the club season, and even earlier in the tournament.

, They will meet Boystown Levis (Auckland) in the second semi-final today and should have too much experience and height for that team. Still, Boystown has the

I dominant figure of the [American. Don Orndorff, and 'plenty of youthful talent. [ both of which expressed [themselves in the 65-60 win [over Ocean Pacific (North Shore). Boystown had the lead — [albeit a narrow one — for I almost the whole game and [Ocean Pacific did not put its [nose in front until Brian Rutter scored with four and [a half minutes left. Eight [prints in two minutes gave lit a 58-57 lead. I However, the Aucklanders [regained the lead with two jqt'ick baskets by Colin Gray, [one from a steal and spectacular breakaway. A treImendous outside shot from [the captain and top-scorer, Brad Crouch (17), sealed the [game for Boystown which (spent the last few seconds [just keeping possession. i In the early matches, [played among the bottom I eight. Christchurch's Checkers upset Melville (Hamilton). [6.-44, for its first win in ; four games and can now not finish worse than twelfth place. Carl Dickel, the player-coach. and “P.J ” Ward were the stars with 16 points each. The contest between Flyers (Hamilton) and Kvees (Dunedin) was a real thriller with Flyers scraping home 76-75 after a goal in the last 35sec by the captain. Bill Kuchler. who was the leading scorer with 22 points. Individual “player of the match” awards also went to Eric Howard (Flyers), the promising St Pats (Wellington) 17-year-old, Franke Mulvihill, Geoff Longley (Checkers) and Tom Neumann (Y.M.C.A.). Neumann helped Y.M.C.A. to a 61-51 win over Mairehau (Christchurch) in spite of the efforts of the Mairehau captain. Mike Seaward, who top-scored for the day with 24 points. Results from the third day:— Bottom eight. — Checkers (Christchurch) 64, Melville (Hamilton) 41; Flyers (Hamilton) 76, Kvees (Dunedin) 75, Y.M.C.A. (Christchurch) 61, Mairehau (Christchurch) 51; St Pats (Wellington) 72, Ajax (Dunedin) 51. Top eight.—Boystown Levis (Auckland) 65, Ocean Pacific (North Shore) 60; Jaks-H.5.0.8. (Christchurch) 61, Inns of Pacific University (Christchurch) 58.