Te Tai Tokerau women achieved their goal of qualifying for the national championships at Basketball New Zealand's Zone One Open Premiership at Kensington Stadium - and went one better, to win the three-day competition.
To qualify for the open nationals in September, the Northland women had to finish in the top
three. At the conclusion of the round-robin competition, the women had hit their target, finishing third, and were set up nicely for a semifinal clash against Auckland East yesterday morning. They won 67-60, to secure a grand final berth against a quality Waitakere City team.
"The final went down to the wire," said an overwhelmed coach Kim Wells, following her side's 52-50 win over the West Aucklanders.
"We were leading for most of the game until they came up in the last quarter, where we were chasing them.
"Our 'bigs' Sue Reed and Rongamau Clark played consistently well on the inside, giving the guards time to shoot. Stacey Paki and Jaimee-Lee Tito did a great job there scoring for us," she said.
Yesterday's victories tasted even sweeter for the Northland women as they lost to Auckland East and Waitakere during the round-robin matches.
It has been over 10 years since the Northland women have attended the national championships and the entire squad put their hand up to be selected for the Invercargill event from September 10-12.
Unfortunately, Te Tai Tokerau Men were outclassed by the stronger Auckland teams and missed out on qualifying for nationals, finishing fifth overall.
