The Wairarapa basketball team returned from their first endeavor to the Paddy Manu Memorial Tournament in Taranaki this week happy with their work after finishing fourth.
It is the first time a Wairarapa side has attended the annual Hawera-hosted event, which has been running now for three years.
A tough opening match
saw point guard Darren Bosch hospital bound after a stray elbow opened up a hefty cut near his cheekbone, though he returned with a patch to see out the remainder of the tournament.
An opening day win was enough to secure a play-off for third and fourth, though it could have been a brighter scenario after they closed within two points of eventual winners Hawera, only to fade in the final minutes to lose by seven.
In the battle for third, the team, likely suffering from the after effects of a long Saturday night out, succumbed to a barrage of Taumaranui three-pointers, including a buzzer-beating near-half court heave that only caught net.
Big men Jason Hutchings, Stu Northe and Josh Carter anchored the Wairarapa team with their prominent rebounding while Jason Brown cooked up some on-court magic.
Not to be left out, brothers Jared and Jacob Carson provided the sharp shooting with Minty Hunter and Aaron McCloud dominating the defensive hustle.
"It was a good comp, it was really well run and hard-fought," Hunter said. "It seemed to be really evenly contested, there was only six or seven points between most teams and I can't remember seeing any blowouts.
"There were also quite a few old guys around who had the old-school court smarts that made it pretty entertaining."
The side now looks ahead to the national divisional championships being held in Levin in September.
"We're starting to get to know each other as a team now, and the guys are really enjoying it so we'll be focusing on stepping up at the divisionals because it's a tough tournament," Hunter said.
"We've even made a bit of pact that next time we go away we'll have a poker night and stay in and maybe get a bit of an early night rather than crawling in at 6am."
