On the first Monday of the school holidays, King’s Basketballers hosted the visiting Australian School, St Joseph’s, Nudgee College for four games at the Edgar Center.

Both of King’s A-Grade Junior Teams managed solid wins over their Nudgee counterparts, even though they both were a few key players short. 

Both teams moved the ball well and played hard defence. In the two senior games the large number of our Lions players were unavailable due to U17 Otago Representative duties that week. This meant many of our Junior players helped out by playing back to back games. Even with key players out both of the senior teams started out well and played hard for the 40 mins on both ends of the floor. Behind some good energy, finishing and pressure defence, they also both managed to pull out wins against the travelling Australians.

It was a great afternoon enjoyed by all involved! We really enjoyed hosting the students, coaches and parents from St Joseph’s, Nudgee College here in Dunedin.

Otago U17 Representative Team at National’s in Wellington

During the first week of the holidays we had five King’s Basketballer’s representing Otago at the U17 National Tournament in Wellington. Dallas Hartmann, Shaquille Berwick, Jack Muir, Angus Cameron and Ben Freeman. 

The team had a successful week making it through pool play by beating Taranaki, Capital and Waikato B and going down in a close game to Manawatu. Waikato was just too big and strong for Otago in their Quarterfinal, and Otago then went on to beat Waitaha Canterbury A in a great game 101 – 73 to play off for 5th and 6th. 

In their final game Tasman shot the lights out and they pulled away, with Otago finishing a very strong 6th out of 19 teams. All the King’s boys played their roles well within the team playing hard every time they were on the floor. Congratulations to them and the Otago U17 Team for such a great result!    

Otago U15 Representative Team at National’s in Auckland

In the second week of the holidays the U15 National Tournament took place in Auckland and again King’s was well represented in the Otago Team with five players; Lachie Cameron, Oscar Cameron, Eric Peita, Max O’Connor and Tapuvae Faitonu. 

The U15 team also started off their tournament really well in pool play beating Waikato Country and Waitakere. They also had a loss to a very tough Harbour A Team and went down in a tight one to Taranaki. 

Even though they split their pool games, they managed to make it through to the Quarterfinals thanks to a superior point differential. In their Quarterfinal, Manawatu A was too strong for Otago, in their next game they pushed Waikato A all the way to the end but unfortunately came up just short. The final game of the tournament for them was against a strong Capital A team for places 7th and 8th. Capital were just too big and pulled out the win. 

Otago finished the tournament very well in 8th place out of 20 teams. Once again all of the King’s boys played hard and showed full commitment to their team through the whole tournament. Congratulations to them and the Otago U15 Team for an awesome result in Auckland!