On Tuesday 26 March, four members of our Senior A Basketball Squad flew to Tauranga to represent CGHS for the first time at the Secondary Schools' 3x3 Championships.

On Tuesday the 26th of March, four members of our Senior A Basketball squad (Violet Eaton, Sammy Arnold, Bella Luhetoa and Mia Abercrombie) flew up north to Tauranga to attend New Zealand Secondary School 3x3 Nationals. This was the first time CGHS had entered a team to partake in this national event, so it was very exciting and new to the team.

We started the tournament with pool play and were placed in a very challenging pool where two of the teams within our pool placed 1st and 2nd overall. With four 12 minute games a day we started off the tournament playing Hamilton Girls’ High School who placed second overall. We played very well for a team who hadn't trained prior to the tournament as well as having little knowledge of the game but sadly finished with a loss. We then played St Peters, Cambridge in our next round of pool play, who went on to be the overall winners of the tournament. Again, this was a tough game but a lot of fun and a great challenge for the team and for our own individual game.

As pool play continued, we managed to gain some wins as well as some very close loses. One of our most competitive games was played against Rotorua Girls’ High School, where both teams put up a great fight and finished 7 all. As we finished with a draw it meant we then had to play in overtime and after a well-played match, we sadly lost 9-8. We were very disappointed with this result as it was such a close game, but we were also stoked on how well we played. Another close game was played against Melville High School where we again lost by 1 point. Sadly, these close games put us in the bottom 8 of the competition but we played very well in our cross over games and gained ourselves the spot of 9th place out of the 14 teams participating.

Overall the tournament was very enjoyable for all players. I am sure the 3x3 basketball culture will grow within CGHS with more teams entering the New Zealand Secondary School 3x3 Nationals in years to come.