Kelly Paenga-Rangihuna, Ryland Bright, Kingston Boyd-Samuels and Manu Papuni made the Super 8 trip to Rotorua last year while Luca Tong, Justin Hill, Logan Mason-Takoko and Santino Smith are first-year rookies.<\/p>\n
In Game 1 of the Premier Men\u2019s league at the YMCA, SE Systems beat Massive Marauders 53-49 on the athleticism and ability to finish of Luke Smith and Tomas Fernandez.<\/p>\n
City Lights captain Scott Muncaster led all scorers with 36 points in a 75-63 win over Off Limitz in Game 2.<\/p>\n
Green Up\u2019s eight-point win against defending champions GBHS in Game 3 owed much to their three scorers in double figures \u2013 Cody Tarei (22), Weighn Wilson (15) and Holden Wilson (15).<\/p>\n
Green Up original and captain Holden Wilson felt his unit played good defence, but might look to reduce their number of turnovers. <\/p>\n
In the absence of Tong, outstanding forward Paenga-Rangihuna (13) and livewire Bright (10) shouldered the burden of scoring.<\/p>\n
Tarei hit two three-point shots and teammate Weighn Wilson one trey in an early 11-6 lead to Green Up.<\/p>\n
Gisborne Boys\u2019 Justin Hill made a memorable lay-up while Tarei made his presence felt with a big man\u2019s put-back.<\/p>\n
Gio Green-Smith of GBHS scored the first field goal of the third period and the tall Rangihuna hit a three-pointer to tie the scores at 34-all.<\/p>\n
Rangihuna later got a great assist from Bright to score, yet Tarei \u2013 who like Rangihuna is one of the most improved young big men in the league \u2013 played tremendous defence to stop Bright from getting to the hoop.<\/p>\n
Weighn Wilson had a zany game for Green Up, hitting three-pointers, committing a comical foul of the rodeo bull variety v Exodus Te Kahu and sending a length-of-the-floor pass to older brother Holden to reduce their deficit to 50-47.<\/p>\n
Bright hustled to save a ball in-court for Kingston Boyd-Samuels under the basket when Green Up led 53-50, and Tarei got across the key to block Boyd-Samuels\u2019s shot.<\/p>\n
It was that sort of game. To be effective, tall timber had to do it at both ends.<\/p>\n
SE Systems v Massive Marauders was a battle of beef and brawn.<\/p>\n
Those are the juiciest contests in club ball, even if the decisive factor was stamina.<\/p>\n
Smith and Fernandez are strong athletes who ran the floor, got to the rim and made tough shots for SES in a four-point game.<\/p>\n
The father-and-son combination of Stefan and Mokena Pishief regularly combined to great effect after Smith scored the first field goal of the league.<\/p>\n
Pishief senior dived to save the ball in-court for Mokena to score at the rim for 5-5. Mokena hit a trey for 17-13 from the left side and Stefan hooked a pass to Mokena, cutting to the hoop for 19-13.<\/p>\n
Marauder Simon Wilson, with a jump hook and spin moves, had his moments, as did teammate and veteran Ray Noble and Luke Bradley.<\/p>\n
Noble, as he has done expertly since first playing with Pishief for The Young and the Useless in 2018, fed Pishief in the low post.<\/p>\n
In one of the most remarkable but unremarked plays of opening night, SES player Adrian Peachey trapped Noble on the spot for 5 seconds at 4:07. Trapping such an experienced player as ex-Rising Suns captain and coach Noble is a rarity.<\/p>\n
Noble returned the favour by stopping Smith left side on the baseline with 1:25 to play in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Bradley (7) hit two treys and took the ball to the basket with aplomb. He is strong, but also has a soft shooting touch.<\/p>\n
Off Limitz are a new addition to club ball. And they are gutsy. <\/p>\n
Five-times champions City Lights won Game 2 75-63, but Off Limitz battled for rebounds at both ends and to make defensive stops against big men of the calibre of Reggie Namana, Ryan Walters and Mike King, who are tall, powerfully built and hard to shift.<\/p>\n
Turanga Mauheni (15) scored the first field goal of the first quarter, a three-pointer from the right corner for 3-2 to Off Limitz.<\/p>\n
Brixter Calipes later zipped by Walters to score for 25-21 to Off Limitz, and when Lights later led in the game, he hit a bank shot right side to cut their lead to 34-30.<\/p>\n
Israel Kerisome carried the ball to good effect for Off Limitz. The Niue representative is an excellent passer, whose court sense and height are valuable assets.<\/p>\n
But Muncaster, with 36 points \u2013 including five treys and a three-point play \u2013 has hit the ground running in terms of his stroke.<\/p>\n
Gisborne Basketball Association club league results<\/p>\n
Ladies<\/p>\n
Spark Plugs 33 (Peyton Riri 14, Petra Sparks 8, Kiera Swann 6) Rugrats 42 (Mere-Kahu Matahiki 9, Mere-Kaya Te Tai 7, Charleigh Karauria 5, Bailey Kora 4). Q1 – Plugs 13 Rats 11; HT – Plugs 21 Rats 23; Q3 – Plugs 26 Rats 30.<\/p>\n
Horouta Rangatira def Hurahi Hoops by default.<\/p>\n
Premier men<\/p>\n
SE Systems 53 (Luke Smith 24, Tomas Fernandez 19) Massive Marauders 49 (Mokena Pishief 16, Stefan Pishief 11, Simon Wilson 8, Luke Bradley 7). Q1 \u2013 SES 11 Marauders 9; HT \u2013 SES 23 Marauders 25; Q3 \u2013 SES 41 Marauders 38.<\/p>\n
Off Limitz 63 (Jissane Allen 19, Brixter Calipes 18, Turanga Mauheni 15, Israel Kerisome 6) City Lights 75 (Scott Muncaster 36, Paora Dewes 15, Reggie Namana 13, Ryan Walters 5). Q1 \u2013 Limitz 20 Lights 19; HT \u2013 Limitz 35 Lights 43; Q3 \u2013 Limitz 50 Lights 61.<\/p>\n
Gisborne Boys\u2019 High School Senior Premiers 55 (Kelly Paenga-Rangihuna 13, Ryland Bright 10, Logan Mason-Takoko 9, Gio Green-Smith 7, Manu Te Puni 6) Green Up 63 (Cody Tarei 22, Weighn Wilson 15, Holden Wilson 15, Dom Wilson 7). Q1 \u2013 GBHS 15 Green Up 23; HT \u2013 GBHS 29 Green Up 34; Q3 \u2013 GBHS 47 Green Up 42.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kelly Paenga-Rangihuna, Ryland Bright, Kingston Boyd-Samuels and Manu Papuni made the Super 8 trip to Rotorua last year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,8421,726,20762,9659,323947,38848,41690,579,4717,8117,109377,85,1643,6618,319],"class_list":["post-835032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-back","tag-basketball","tag-boys","tag-captain","tag-deck","tag-gisborne","tag-go","tag-high","tag-in","tag-just","tag-ready","tag-sports","tag-super","tag-time","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}