Basketball play-off venue unchanged

Press, 29 July 1989, Page 15

Basketball play-off venue unchanged

By

FRANK DUGGAN

If the Canterbury Countrywide Bank national men’s basketball team is forced into a play-off against Hawke’s Bay for the fourth spot in the national finals in Auckland on August 11 and 12, the match will be definitely played at Palmerston North next Saturday. This was the ruling given by the New Zealand Federation yesterday. Canterbury’s appeals to the federation during the week for another venue obviously fell on deaf ears. Canterbury asserted that Palmerston North was not a neutral venue and that Canterbury was disadvantaged. Even Nelson yesterday offered to stage a possible play-off.

Now it is more vital than ever that Canterbury beats the league leader, Palmerston North, this evening. The team is well aware of the challenge. It is another busy representative week-end for Canterbury. The women’s league team plays a double-header at home against Otago (this evening) and Southland (tomorrow afternoon), while the Canterbury B men’s team will play a curtain-raiser against Southland tomorrow. The women’s team needs to win one of its two matches to qualify for the national finals. Ail the teams are unchanged. • Hawke’s Bay’s men’s coach, Curtis Wooten, wants to beat Waikato today before worrying about the national

league finals and a possible play-off against Canterbury. If Hawke’s Bay wins its clash againt Waikato, and Canterbury, loses to Palmerston North, the two will need a play-off to decide the fourth team for the finals. Auckland, Palmerston North and Saints are already assured of the first three berths. In other games, two of the top teams, Auckland and Saints, have drawn relatively easy matches against lowerranked teams Waitemata and Nelson respectively. Bottom-of-the-table North Shore has its last chance to resurrect some winning spirit for the season with a match against New Plymouth, but cannot avoid relegation.