All-Christchurch basketball finals today

Press, 16 April 1979, Page 22

All-Christchurch basketball finals today

All Christchurch A grade finals will be a feature of the Easter South Island inter-club basketball championships at Cowles Stadium today. Last evening Canterbury University (men) and Mairehau (women) eliminated the only two outside teams with a chance of reaching reaching the finals.

Mairehau beat the strong Nelson combination Tennis, the defending champion and winner of the tournament four times in the last six years. Canterbury University came from behind at halftime to beat Otago University and it will meet JaksHigh School Old Boys in the final this afternoon. Mairehau will meet Checkers. The clash of the university teams and Mairehau and Tennis were hard fought and by contrast the second two setni-finals between Jaks and Y.M.C.A., and Checkers and University, were anticlimaxes.

University was very impressive in its win against its Otego counterpart. For much of the first-half the

play was even, and the scores were level 34-all at the interval. Within a few minutes of the resumption Canterbury had opened a 10 point gap, and when Otago’s best player Andy’ Bennett, was fouled off shortly after there was no stopping Canterbury. Its passing was crisp and its counter-attacking swift. Otago contributed to its problems with sloppy passing and with Mat Ruscoe rebounding and blocking effectively it was prevented from scoring for several minutes.

At the interval Mairehau trailed Tennis by four points and soon after drew level and then ahead. With Mary Fastier rebounding cleanly and swiftly and Jackie Cook shoot!::., accurately Mairehau soon built a 10-point lead that Tennis had little hope of overcoming.

The experienced Jaks side quickly built a 10-point lead against Y.M.C.A. and there was never much ci.ance of it relinquishing it. Tim Guthrie the player coach of Jaks shuffled his players to save

them for today’s final, but the relaxed smile on his face half-way through the sec-ond-half when the game was safe, should be wiped off by the enthusiastic University team in the final. Alan Manco, Dave Usmar, John Wright and John Whelan all showed touches of the class play of which they are capable against Y.M.C.A. which in turn had its scoring machine, John Rademakers marked out of the game. He scored only six of his side’s 38 points. Checkers was much too polished for the University team in the other women’s semi-final and by half-time has a lead of 32-15. By full time it was extended to 6141. Jaks could count itself rather fortunate that it downed Otago , University earlier in the day. The students fully lived up to their pre-toumament reputation and thoroughly extended Jaks in a closelyfought contest that could have gone either way. Jaks won 59-57» after enjoying an

eight-point lead at the change around. However, much of the post-section excitement came from the top women’s grade and the undoubted highlight of the competition so far was the eclipsing of the highly-touted Mairehau High School team. There was a three-way tie in section I of the grade. Otago University Checkers and Mairehau H.S. all lost once in section play, but Otago won the section on a countback. Mairehau was second and Checkers third. Mairehau, as the second team in section I, came up against Tennis which was still smarting after a loss to the Mairehau club side in section play. Tennis played dreadfully to lose to Mairehau, but with a semi-final berth at stake the side produced a great effort to pip their arch-rivals of previous years, 35-28. Results from Saturday.-, r ; MEN ” A gride i Section-L—Burnsid«6l,K-Vees

58; Jaks H. 5.0.8. 68, K-Vees 39; Burnside 42, Athletic 60. Section H.—Aranui 29, Checkers 44; University 67, Checkers 40; Ajax 66, Aranui 50. Section 1H. —Mairehau 77, C.M.S. 46; Otago University 74, Mairehau 63; Y.M.C.A. 89. C.M.S. 38. B grade Section I—Y.M.C.A. “A” 14, Cardinals 28; Jaks-H.5.0.8. 27, Cardinals 28; Y.M.C.A. "A” 47, Garrisons 17; Y3I.C.A. *A" 38. Jaks-H.5.0.8. 31; Aranui 59, Garrisons 20. Section H.—Checkers 38, Cashmere H.S. 36; St Pat’s 51, Aranui H.S. 39; St Pat’s 60. Checkers 36; University 31, St Pat’s 40; University 59, Aranui H.S. 23. Section HI Hagley 22, Continental Caterers Rangiora 43; Marist 24, Burnside 39; Marist 9, Continental Caterers Rangiora 49; Marist 26, Bavarians 19; Bavarians 20, Bumside 44. Section IV.—Rebels 45, Wanderers 25: Y.M.C.A. "B” 31, Teachers College 28; Ajax 29, Rebels 21; Ajax 17, Y.M.C.A. "B” 20; Ajax 35, Teachers College 30. Results from post-section playoffs yesterday.— A grade Jaks-H.S.OJB. 59, Otago University 57: Y.M.C.A. 53, Ajax 33; University 61, Athletic 37. Semi-finals Jaks-H.5.0.8. 75, Y.M.C.A. 38; University 66, Otago University 50. B grads Semi-finals.—St Pat’s 31. University 32; Ajax 27, Y.H.CA. "B“ 28.

Saturday’s results: WOMEN A grade Section I.—Checkers 60. Rebels 24; Otago University 58, Electricity 36; Mairehau H.S. 63, Checkers 49; Mairehau H.S. 34, Otago University 46. Section II —Tennis 45, University 32; Tennis, Continental Caterers Rangiora; Christchurch United 46, Continental Caterers Rangiora 34; Tennis 35, Mairehau 52; Christchurch United 43, Mairehau 62; University 51, Continental Caterers Rangiora 32, B grade Section I.—Marist 33, Stars 13; Marist 25, Halswell "A” 13; University 25, Hagley 35; Marist 30, University 20; Stars 11, HalsweU “A” 22. Section IL—Rebels 19, HalsweU "B” 13; Rebels 20, St Pat’s 48; Burnham 30, Aranui H.S. 10; St Pat’s 38. Halswell “B” 9; St Pat’s 17, Burnham 18. Section 111.—D.8. Rovers 15, Checkers 19; Checkers 17, Burnside 18; Valiants 18, Burnside 19. Section IV.—Brighton 49. Wanderers 19; Otago University 25, Teachers College 16; Wanderers 15, Teachers’ CoUege 23. Results from yesterday: grade.—Mairehau 42, Checkers 41; University 44, Otago University 41; Tennis 35, Mairehau H.S. 28. Semi-finals.—Tennis 38, Mairehau 53; University 41, Checkers 61. B grade.—Semi-finals: St Pat’s 20, Marist 31; Bumside 10, D.B. Rovers 16,