Eastern Southland Invitational 17th to19th of March 2023

Southland under 15’s and under 17’s had the opportunity to compete at an invitational tournament held by Eastern Southland Basketball Association at Archers Stadium in Gore last weekend. All teams played hard and came away with some great results and important learning experiences.

The U15 girls had two hard fought games were they came up short in both, losing to South Canterbury and Eastern. We are extremely proud of the progress the team made from Saturday to Sunday.

U17 Girls played Eastern Southland twice, Friday night saw a close game with our girls lead by Libby Crawford with 18 points, everyone on the team scored leading helping acheive a much-deserved win. Maggie Manson stepped up big on Saturday to lead the team with 15 points to a comfortable win.

Our under 15 boys were divided into two teams for each day, winning 4 games and losing 2. There were many stand out performances over the weekend, Alex Stevens putting up 12 points against South Canterbury, Noa Herewini with 18 points against Eastern Southland B team and then Izaiah Brown with 12 against that same Eastern team. George Thomson come in strong 12 against South Canterbury, while Noa Herewini and Gianna Skipper contributed 10 points each against Eastern Southland A team.

U17 boys took two teams and played against Eastern Southland and South Canterbury, winning all 4 games. With the scoring load shared, the teams really came together to capture vital wins.

All teams now look towards the 15th to 16th of April where they will head to Dunedin in this years official preseason tournament. We wish the teams all the luck in the world as they continue to train hard and represent Southland in a way that makes us all proud.

Thank you to the officials, coaches, parents and suppporters that all helped make it a great weekend.