Basketball roundup..........

Boys Senior Basketball Schick Cup

Heading into the tournament the RHS boys were confident even with 3 players down. Their first game was on Thursday against Wakatipu. As this was the first time RHS had attended the Schick Southern Cup, we went into the game not knowing anything about our opposition.  It turns out they were a very talented side and put up a great fight with the score being 0-1 at the final whistle.

Our next game was on Friday against Burnside.  Having played Division 1 in the Thomson Cup it meant it was also Burnsides first time in this competition, which seeded them into our pool. Our boys put heart and soul into the game, desperate to earn a place in the quarter-finals however, the rub of the green just wasn’t on our side as we lost again.

Being 0-2, meant we were now playing in the 'sudden death' pool, fighting to finish 9th out of the 12 teams.  We were pitched against Kaiapoi and it was very tight.  At the end of every quarter the scoreline was within 5. In the fourth quarter, we gave it everything we had ended with an 85-81 win. Jacob Davidson finished the game with 30 points.

Our final game of the tournament was against John McGlashan College for 9th place. The first 3 quarters were deja vu,  just like the game against Kaiapoi, tight and competitive. In the 4th quarter we comfortably out-worked them and ended up with 86-74 and 9th place. Enda Brennan dropped 46 points in Orion Chau’s jersey to commemorate an injury that ended Orion's season.

We weren’t happy we placed 9th but we are happy with the amount of heart and effort we brought to the court every single game. The boys developed immensely over the course of the tournament and with a young team, the future of Riccarton High School basketball is looking bright.

By Orio Chau

Girls Senior Basketball Schick Cup

After the Whelan Trophy season ended for 2019,  the Riccarton Senior A team continued to train hard in order to improve in preparation for the Schick Cup Tournament which was being held at Cowles Stadium. For many girls in the team it was their first time competing in a tournament. We had some very early games during the course of the tournament which required us to wake up at 6:30 am in order for us to get there and prepare for the game. We also had some very late nights but despite this, it showed the level of dedication and passion that we each had for competing in the tournament. We won 2 games at the tournament against Hagley High School and Marlborough Girls College. On the last day of the tournament, we played against Villa Maria for 3rd and 4th place. We ended up coming in 4th place after a very closely fought game. Our tournament MVP was Jayda Kingi who had an outstanding tournament both defensively and offensively.

By Cassidy Alexander

Girls Junior Basketball Schick Cup

Our Year 10 girls Junior Basketball Tournament experience began with a long drive from Christchurch to Dunedin and although the trip was broken up with lots of stops where we took some cool, goofy pictures, we were so shattered on arrival that we went straight to bed.

Our first game was against Rangi Ruru and while we took a good beating, we didn’t mind too much because as a team we made the decision to have fun and stay positive, knowing there were plenty more games to come.

After a good night's rest, we woke up and enjoyed a good breakfast and got ready for the day. Our first game was really early in the morning so we went straight down to Edgar Center and watched a couple of other games to see just what we were up against. Unfortunately we lost our second game but still, we remained positive as we went back to the motel to chill until our next game later that day. 

On the third day, we had a game at 2:15pm so we decided to go shopping and check out some of the local tourist spots around Dunedin (but to be honest it was mainly shopping).  Our last game was Riccarton High School vs Papanui High School.  This was especially daunting because they had so many tall players in the team and we only had our Emma who had any height advantage.

Overall we didn’t come away with any wins, and in one game we lost by 90 points, but we did gain some very valuable experience, the opportunity to develop our individual game and some amazing memories of a great trip away.

By Mya Kingi