Canty basketbailers beaten

Press, 10 March 1987, Page 27

Canty basketbailers beaten

Canterbury’s Countrywide men’s basketball league team won two out of three games in a pre-season tournament at Hamilton during the weekend. It lost in the final, 94124, to Saints, of Wellington.

It was one of the 1986 league champion's biggest losses in recent seasons. But the defeat did not discourage the Canterbury coach, Gary Pettis. He was reasonably happy with performances, but said there would have to be a tremendous amount of hard work in the remaining month leading up to the start of the league. In the first game on Friday evening Canterbury beat Hamilton, 88-70, after leading 46-38 at half-time. Angelo Hill

scored 34 points, Clyde Huntley 24, and John Rademakers 10. The game was scrappy. Canterbury did not arrive in Hamilton until shortly before the start time of 6.30 p.m., and appeared slightly jaded. There was a much better performance by Canterbury against North Shore on Saturday morning; the side won, 103-82, after being in front, 60-34, at half-time. With a 30point lead midway through the second half, Mr Pettis rested Hill and Huntley and gave other members of the bench a run. Rademakers top-scored with 21; next were Hill and lan Webb (13 each), Bert Knops (12), and Lance Dixon

(10). The final against Saints was Canterbury’s worst performance of the tournament. "We just didn’t get going,” said Mr Pettis. “Everything we tried went wrong.” Canterbury led, 27-20, after lOmin, but with John Hill in trouble with fouls, Saints raced away to a 56-46 halftime advantage. Saints, conquerors of Canterbury in the same tournament last year, rarely missed the basket, netting a 75 per cent average. But of the 33 shots Canterbury took in the keyhole, only 11 were converted. Hill (36) and Huntley (33) were the only doublefigure scorers.