WEEK 7

Our Maungaraki basketball teams are representing the school with pride and consistently showing our HEART values - awesome job everyone! I got down to the Yr 7/8 Maungaraki Timberwolves game vs St Joseph's, and was hugely impressed by the performance of the team!

Here are updates from some of the teams:

Maungaraki Heat (Yr 1/2)
14 June - Thanks heaps Craig for taking the team on Friday in what sounds like a great win – 12-4, nice work team.

Maungaraki Hornets (Yr 3/4)
Tough game this week with 3 players away but it made our quieter players step up and do really well. Alex scored our only points, 14-2. Diaz and Luke both got player of the day, Diaz for great defence and Luke for his awesome assists.

Maungaraki Knicks (Yr 3/4)
This week Maungaraki Knicks played Muritai. A very close game that saw both teams hustling for the ball & putting up lots of shots. Knicks went down by 2 points & could've gone either way.  Our MVP this week is Sanchit as he doesn't give up & is such a strong passer & team player! 

Maungaraki Warriors (Yr 5/6)

10 June - Wow! That was a great and fast paced game tonight! As those of you who were able to make it along would know.  Great to see some new faces, regular faces and faces we haven’t seen for a while, in attendance today. I think you all definitely saw the best game of the season so far, and as an added bonus we even got the win, 10 – 8!

So proud of the kids in this game. Without practising for 3 weeks they were able to carry out the instructions I gave them so well. I asked for a focus on defensive rebounding and I think there were only maybe 2 or 3 times out of the whole game that everyone wasn’t down in the key (the area under the hoop) ready to grab the ball if it came their way. We hadn’t had to play at that speed so far this season so it was great to see everyone take it in their stride. We even saw some kids sacrificing their bodies diving on the floor (Tim ). I just couldn’t be prouder. Even Toby, who was able to make it to the game for the first time this season, came in and played really well. 

As a result, I am really struggling to pick a Player of the Game. There was some amazing moving of the feet on defence, amazing passing, amazing rebounding, amazing steals and blocks.... just all of it.

But I am going to have to give it to Toby today. I think the confidence and speed with the ball made a big difference to our attack, and as a result we were able to get the ball down to the attacking end, after a missed shot from the other team, a lot more often than in previous games. But give your kids all a big pat on the back (and maybe some extra dessert ) as they really earned it.

17 June - A 16 – 8 loss today. I knew this would be the hard game of the round and it certainly proved to be. A bit of a shock to the system for our kids this game. The other team had clearly played together for a while, as was very evident to me in the opening play by the spacing they had on court. Not at all something we see at this age. Before we knew it they were up 8 – 0, we hadn’t had a shot, and it only got worse by halftime with a 12 – 0 scoreline. It was at this point I made a change and all of a sudden we were right back in the game at 14 – 8. Unfortunately we just ran out of time. I did contemplate staying with the 5 on the court when we started our scoring run, but there were a few red faces out there so I had to make some changes which caused our push to stutter somewhat. Good learnings for me though. Hopefully we have done enough in our other games to get to the final, if there is one. The opposition coach was nice enough to mention that we were the hardest game they had had. Great to hear when only 3 or 4 of our team have played before. Just FYI – that team have been together for 3 or 4 years! We’ll get them next time though!

There were (again) some great efforts put forth by everyone. In particular I have to give Sophie a shout out here. Along the way this season I have given her little tips to really make use of her height and she has added them slowly but surely. You will have all noticed how she is now keeping the ball above her head now when she rebounds, and shooting it from there as well. This way no one can steal it or block it, and it's very obvious if she gets fouled because it’s in clear sight. More dessert for her this week haha

But today I am going to give the player of the day award to Koko. She had a hard start to the game, getting the ball stolen off her the first few times she got it. But I subbed her off and had a little chat to her, about what she was doing and why the ball was getting stolen, and when I put her back on she was amazing. I don’t know how many times I yelled ‘Go Koko’ or something similar. Her tenacity on defence was brilliant, and she was into everything. After the game she even said to me how ‘her height really counted against her in this game’. So to see her come out fighting like she did was a real credit to her. Well done Koko.

Maungaraki Mavericks (Yr 5/6)
11 June - Our game was a classic mate-against-mate game, with our Maungaraki Mavericks taking on the Maungaraki Warriors. The Warriors got some great baskets in the first half, taking the lead at half time by 8-2. But I was super proud of the way the Mavericks held their heads up and came back into the game in the second half. It was close at the finish, but the Warriors took it out in the end, by 10-8. Mavericks player of the day was Leo, for showing huge hustle for the ball both on attack and defence, and putting into action everything the coaches asked of him.

17 June - The Maungaraki Mavericks had a great game tonight, coming away with a high scoring win by 18-10 against TAWKKM. We’ve been focusing a lot on passing and teamwork, and it was great to see that put into action on the court, with a lot of ball movement and unselfish play. Player of the day was Brooklyn – he’s been working hard on his game, and has shown a massive improvement both in practice and in the game, getting into space, getting rebounds and supporting his team.

Maungaraki Timberwolves
9 June - Tough game for the team, but they showed a lot of courage to stay in the game and come back in the second half – but ultimately lost 26-11.

16 June - What a game! A great win against St Jospeh's. So much quality was shown out on the court - Sofie must have made about 20 offensive and defensive rebounds, Minh's shooting was on form, Mia even scored a backwards shot! Great hustle from everyone, never giving up on a loose ball, and supporting and backing each other up at all times. Player of the Day went to Carlo for his great plays heading direct to the hoop.