Manukura lose heartbreaker
Manukura almost pulled off a stunning comeback only to fall in the final seconds to Opunake High School 58-56 in the girls’ A final at the Basketball New Zealand secondary schools nationals in Palmerston North yesterday.
Manukura trailed by nine at halftime, but battled their way back and were down by just one late in the fourth quarter and had the scores locked up with 12 seconds to play. But Opunake, led by Iritana Hohaia and Simone Cook, did enough to claim back-toback titles.
Hohaia finished with 23 points and Cook with 22. No one else on the team registered more than four points. Manukura put in a brave challenge led by forward Rochelle Fourie who ended with 14 points and six rebounds, while Harata Coleman added 12 points.
They got off to a slow start, allowing Opunake High School to race out to a seven point lead.
But Manukura kept the pressure on with Fourie playing a dominant role.
They fought back to be 21-17 down at the end of the first quarter with Carys Dallinger and Coleman making big impacts.
When the second quarter started, it was much like the first.
Manukura struggled to make stops and were mixed with their shooting which allowed Opunake to jump out to a 34-23.
And much like the first quarter, Manukura fought back.
They trailed 40-31 at halftime with Hohaia and Cook bagging 18 and 15 points respectively for Opunake.
With Talon August starting to come more into the game, Manukura won the third quarter 13-7 to make for an exciting final quarter.
As Manukura got the game within one in the fourth quarter, they lost Fourie who fouled out. Harata, August and Coleman and all started to play bigger roles.
But they could not quite pull it off with Dallinger missing a heavily-contested layup in the final second which would have forced overtime.