Horouta were more focused after the halftime break and in three minutes of play scored four goals in a row to level it 25 all.
It went goal for goal until Horouta pulled away in the last few minutes of the third quarter.
Horouta’s players worked together in the final two quarters by positioning themselves well on attack, which enabled them to run on to the pass and deliver the ball at speed.
On defence, their players marked their opposition closely and created turnovers.
The students struggled under Horouta’s pressure in the second half and made errors, especially when they tried to up their tempo.
Horouta Koura defenders Lucretia Taitapanui and Chalise Ngarimu combined well to limit ball into the school shooters.
Both secured tips, intercepts and rebounds and Ngarimu also linked efficently with the attack end when the ball was turned over.
Goal attack O’Shae Rangihaeata put herself into space for her midcourters and finished well.
YMP led Ngatapa all the way — 8-5 after the first quarter, 27-16 at halftime and 44-24 at the three-quarter mark.
The top seeds started strongly to be seven goals up before Ngatapa finally found the net.
Ngatapa’s use of the high ball early on was punished by YMP players, who have great elevation.
Once they realised this was not the tactic to use, Ngatapa settled down and ate into the deficit to trail by three at the break.
YMP upped the speed and intensity from there, with all players working together throughout the court.
They put the foot down, executed some good long passing and pulled away.
Ngatapa had some good passages of play — especially around the goal circle where they made good use of triangle passing to get the ball to their shooters.
Premier Grade action continues tomorrow morning in the Y, starting with Claydens Waikohu (1) up against YMP (2) at 9am.
Newly-promoted YMP (2) had a tough start to the grade last week against clubmates YMP.
They face a similar challenge against second seeds Waikohu, who have been playing well.
Ngatapa are back in action at 10.30am against Whangara Old Girls.
They produced phases of good play against YMP but will need to display this over the whole hour against seasoned Premier side Whangara.
Other senior grades, secondary, intermediate and Future Ferns players are in action on the Victoria Doman courts from 9am to 3pm.
