Three Columba College students represented Otago at the recent age-group Basketball Nationals in Hamilton, and their performance helps to pave the way for a promising future for Basketball at Columba!

Alexa Duff, Brenna Lyons and Ryan Dailey travelled to Hamilton to compete in the AON U15 Basketball nationals over the recent weekend (24th - 26th October).

The competition started with a close game against a very skilled team from Tauranga. Several 3 point shots from Tauranga put Otago behind by as much as 12 points in the second quarter. The girls fought back and tied it up late in the third and went on to win 68-60.

The next game that day was against West Coast and the team posted a convincing win (101-39). Alexa Duff scored 8 points in the game and Brenna Lyons scored 10! Otago was now guaranteed a spot in the top 8. Day 2 placed Otago against Northland, who had beaten Auckland and Harbour in their qualifiers to earn the top seed in Division 1. It was a rough game but an important result as a win would put Otago at the top of Pool D and provide a better draw for the quarter finals. It was a 2-point game late in the fourth quarter, however Otago was able to pull off the win by a narrow margin 50-47.

Quarter finals time! On Monday afternoon, Otago played Taranaki for a chance to make it into the top 4. Taranaki made 8 three pointers but Otago was always able to counter and won a nail biter 74-71 to make it into the top 4 -- In doing so they improved on their last year's result of 5th in the U15 division. Otago pulled the bleachers out for the semi final and the house was packed for their game against the defending champs and the hometown team, Waikato. Some intense defensive pressure put Otago on their heels early on. They were able to regroup later in the game and post a respectable score of 39-62, but the early deficit was too large to recover from. A great opportunity to learn from possibly the best defensive team in the country. This result put Otago out of the final but they still had a chance at third place in their final game against Rotorua. 

The play-off for third was a thriller with a very high scoring fourth quarter and a 3 pointer from Rotorua at the end to tie the game 60-60 and send it to overtime. Otago dug deep in OT and pulled off an exciting win 77-70. Ryan Dailey put her scoring hat on for this game and scored 15 points. Columba should have five or more players on next year's U15 team so we are already looking forward to another exciting rep season!

Well done girls, we are super proud of your efforts.

Article written by Brett Dailey.