TNT Jnr As 3x3 Team: Taiari Karipa, Zach Corbett, Kayden Messenger, Roman Elers and Sol Calvert.
Day 1 was a bit shaky which we put down to nerves with 2 wins & losses. Managing a tough & satisfying win over St John’s College (Hamilton). Going down to Mt Albert Grammar in our first game & Te Awamutu College stealing the game in the dying minute. Up against Rangitoto College in our last game the boys managed to finish the game early getting to 21 before the 10min game time clock had expired. A good way to finish the day on a high.
Going into day 2, we knew our first game was going to be a tough ask going up against Westlake Boys HS who had 3x NZ U15 players in their 4 man squad going down 21-9. Westlake ended up winning the tournament. Putting that behind us, our next 3 games would prove that we belonged amongst the best topping Takapuna Grammar, Pukekohe HS & Rosmini College to finish off our day. We left the stadium on a high as we had now achieved the goal of Top 8. Due to some upset wins & losses in other games in our pool over the first 2 days, we ended up finishing 2nd in our pool behind Westlake & this just hyped us up going into finals day giving us a game vs the 3rd seed in the other pool.
Back at the venue for finals day we knew we would be playing Avondale College in the quarter finals who had momentum coming off a big win against Tauranga Boys the day before, which gave us fuel to finish the game early & cement our spot in the Top 4 winning 21-11 finishing the game on the hooter with a corner deuce. Off to the semis & we had now achieved something greater than what we had originally set for ourselves.
Lining up in the semi vs St Peter’s (Auckland) we got off to an early lead, putting St Peter’s under immense pressure heading into the last 4mins of the game but as the game goes, we miss a few, they make a few & to St Peter’s credit, they clawed back to take the win 17-13. With still a lot to play for, we were matched up against Hamilton Boys HS playing for 3rd & 4th as they came off a nail biting 1pt loss against Westlake, we knew we had to leave everything out there for our last game. Once again getting off to an amazing start, taking an early lead really had HBHS abit shocked. Both teams showing amazing grit with HBHS just squeezing past in the last moments of the game to win 17-15.
4th place out of 19 teams. Amazing achievement & to be celebrated by everyone back home. Proving that hard work, commitment & sacrifice will produce results.
Super proud of our boys & has really put Taupo as a whole on the basketball map.
Thank you to Daz who gives up a significant amount of time to take these boys to as many tournaments as they can every year!
