Tania Dalton's daughter following in mother's footsteps

Tania Dalton in action for the Silver Ferns against Samoa at the 2003 Netball World Championship in Jamaica. Photo / Photosport.

Six months on from the sudden passing of former Silver Ferns star Tania Dalton, daughter Tayla replicated her mother's prodigious sporting talents by churning out outstanding cross-code performances for North Shore school Carmel College this week.

The life of her mother Tania, the former 37-cap Silver Ferns goal shoot and goal attack, was taken at the age of just 45 when she collapsed during a social game of touch in Takapuna in February due to a ruptured internal carotid artery aneurism.

However, the sporting presence within the Dalton family lives on, as Tayla, 15, showed when turning out for Carmel College in both the upper North Island secondary schools netball tournament, and the zone 1 secondary schools regional premierships for basketball.

In the past week, she has played eight games of netball and four of basketball.

She perhaps saved her best perofrmances for last, making two impressive outings in her preferred sport of basketball on Friday.

She began by scoring a whopping 60 points during Carmel's 84-66 defeat of St Kentigern College at the end of pool play, before dishing out another 56 points in her side's 103-82 defeat to Rangitoto College in their first play-off match.

Her 116-point effort across the two games is indicative of her basketball capabilities, which is further highlighted by her selection as MVP at the national under-17 tournament for the North Harbour representative side earlier this year.

A member of the New Zealand under-16 squad last year, Dalton Jr is set to again pull on the black singlet when she travels to India with the national under-17 team to compete at the Asian championships later this year.

"I gave it my all and my team worked well together," she told Fairfax of her standout performances this week.

"I don't really think about the points, I just play the game. My coach came up and told me and I thought 'that's exciting'."

Left with her mother's exceptional sporting genes, don't expect this to be the last time the Dalton family will light up a sporting arena.