Gold Rush rises to occasion to reach championship final
THE Otago Gold Rush is heading to the big dance.
A tenacious performance has taken it to today’s Women’s Basketball Championship Final at the Edgar Centre, having beaten the Harbour Breeze 8471 in last night’s semifinal.
It was a complete performance in arguably the Gold Rush’s best game of the tournament.
Defensively it was outstanding and did a great job of containing its opponent’s strong inside presence.
Meanwhile it hustled to win loose balls and scrapped for every rebound.
On offence it was clinical as it made good use of its range of threats.
Coach Todd Marshall was thrilled and agreed that it was the side’s best game of the tournament. It had won its last two in nailbiters down the stretch.
‘‘We always kept it at that sixto10point [margin] zone,’’ he said.
‘‘While it’s great to win with shots on the buzzer, it’s better not to have to do that.
‘‘That’s tough to do in a semi.’’ Nicole Ruske and Dana Goularte both starred, showing their ability to influence the game in multiple ways.
Ruske finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in a brilliant allround display, while Goularte had 22 points and nine rebounds.
Harbour’s inside presence helped keep it in the game.
Penina Davidson finished with 23 points, 17 rebounds and six assists, although it was not enough to get her team over the line.
The Gold Rush bigs did a brilliant job of containing their opposites — scrapping the whole way in a gutsy display.
‘‘She’s tough,’’ Marshall said of Davidson.
‘‘Some of the girls were finding it tough, but we just said stick at it, keep at it.
‘‘In the end it worked for us. I was really happy with the way our bigs played there.’’
The Gold Rush got off to a quick start as star duo Ruske and Goularte proved too much to handle. They helped the Gold Rush out to a 72 lead, which it extended to doubledigits at 166 on a Dayna Turnbull threepointer.
Harbour pulled back to 2118, but four points to Goularte off offensive rebounds left the Gold Rush ahead 2518 at the first break.
That closed up midway through the second quarter. However Ruske picked up the scoring late for Otago to lead 4333 at the half.
Harbour fought back to trail 6156 at the final break, but the Gold Rush executed well down the stretch to take a deserved victory.
The Gold Rush will now meet the Waikato Wizards in the final after they showed their class to beat the Auckland Dream 6746.
Earlier, the Gold Rush rallied late against the Dream to force overtime at 5959 after trailing the whole game. It went on to win 6864.
Ruske led the way with 25 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.