Aerial bombardment was the key to Nelson College for Girls beating Waimea Prices Ahurei 72-67 in the NBS Premier Section at Saxton Stadium last Thursday.
To call it an upset would be harsh on both sides, as NCG did beat Prices once last year and came within six points of them at the start of this year’s competition.
The game plan was simple – get the ball to 1.93m tall goal shoot Greer Robertson.
Her teammates did, delivering pinpoint long balls, and she finished off time and time again.
“Greer has learnt to get stronger, and even with her height she actually has to jump a bit,” says NCG coach Faye Eden.
“It is quite nice actually to have that height,” quips Greer, whose game has also grown since last season.
“You just have to keep consistent. It was a real team effort with tough D and Charli Routhan playing awesome with her intercepts,” enthuses Greer.
It was goal for goal for the first eight minutes but, as turnovers crept into the Prices shooting circle, Nelson edged clear to lead 22-16 at quarter time.
Predictably, Prices responded and closed the gap to one goal part-way through the second quarter, but Nelson again pulled away for a 41-35 advantage at halftime.
“The third quarter is where we sometimes drop off. So, we talked about that, said stay calm and don’t panic if they do come back. Prices are smart heads but just play our game,” confirms Faye.
Prices cut the lead to four goals at the end of the third quarter, setting up a thrilling final period.
But third-place Nelson held its nerve to close out a 72-67 victory.
“It was even better than last year as this is such a young team. At one stage we only had two Year 13’s on court, so to win was very exciting. It was an absolute team effort and great for the competition,” declares Faye.
The star sharpshooter agrees.
“We have four Year 11’s so it was really nice to get some points off Prices,” says Greer.
Prices captain Tui Kinita had mixed emotions.
“It is my old school, so I always find it really tough coming up against them. They are a great bunch of girls and every year they get better and younger, it seems,” says the wing defence.
“They have improved since we played them eight weeks ago and they made it really tough on us. Our game plan was to get hands over nice and quickly to try and stop them bombing those long ones in, but what can you do when they have a shooter that tall. Our defence worked hard tonight but things didn’t go ourway. So, we will go back to the drawing board,” concluded Tui after the match.
In other results, Jacks OPD overpowered Waimea Prices Ma 76-26 and Richmond F45 was too strong for Stoke NBS 69-32.
