Basketball Nationals 2011

Basketball Nationals 2011 - Palmerston North

The AGGS Premier Basketball team qualified for the National Secondary Schools Tournament in Palmerston North for 2011 and set off on a 9 day long trip on Sunday 21st August. Our team went into the tournament in 3rd place from the Auckland Region with a mix of experience and fresh young players.  

The first 3 days of the tournament was the pool-play section where we played 4 other schools with the two top teams qualifying for the quarterfinals. We won our first game against Mana College which helped set the team out on the right path. The next day however we lost both our games against Hamilton Girls' High and Napeir Girls' which were somewhat of a surprise and would usually make us ineligible for the quarterfinals but luckily the odds were in our favour and we were given a second chance. The next game against Rangiora was critical. To make it to the quarterfinals we had to beat Rangiora by more than 9 points, the pressure was on. At this point our co-captains Jackie Petelo and Insug Jung prepared us for our 'big game' by sharing some positive words of leadership to get us motivated. We held the lead throughout the entire match and ended up winning by 20 points: double what was needed. By winning our game against Rangiora we finished the pool section after 3 days 2nd in our pool which put us into the top 8 teams in New Zealand.

Unfortunately we lost our highly anticipated quarterfinal to Hamilton's Fraser High School in a hotly contested and highly energised show down. Despite the loss the young players stood up and the whole team should feel very proud of their performance. In the final match of the tournament against Tauranga Girls for 7th and 8th place, the team came back from being down by 15 points to win by 3. By Saturday afternoon it was all over with the team tired but concluding tournament wee 7th out of all the schools in New Zealand. With many young players in the team the only way is up for this focused and talented squad.

Throughout the whole week Miss Reid became our chef, chauffeur, supervisor and cheerleader and we'd like to thank her for everything she did for us. We would also like to thank our experienced and patient coaches and manager for their dedication throughout the season and tournament week: Anthony Keung, Miroslav Ah Hing and Jane Perenini. The time you have put aside for the team and overall support is very much appreciated.

Team Players: