Waitakere City - U17 NZ Champions have a strong MAGS connection

Basketball Wrap Up - August

Well done and congratulations to our MAGS Premier Girls team who have finished the Premier Pool competition the way they started.

Good luck to Morgan Roberts who is participating in the Women's Basketball Championships being held in Dunedin this week. Morgan is part of the U17 NZ team and they are using it as a training run prior to the Oceania Tournament in November.

Also good luck to our U15 Girls side as they contest the GABC finals this week as well.

GO LIONS GO

Conceding only one game throughout the season to Auckland Girls' Grammar they have finished the year with a 13 -1 record , scoring 972 points and conceding 735.

Focus for the team now is on the upcoming Greater Auckland Basketball championships where they will be playing off against Rangitoto, AGGS and St Cuthbert's to determine final Auckland placings. Then it is on to Regionals to determine our placings for the National Championships to be held in late September.

Update Term 2 - Week 5

Games 4, 5 and 6 have all been played and won placing MAGS firmly at the top of the Prem ladder almost midway through the season.

Game 4 against St Cuths allowed the team to run and blood a number of new squad members who joined the team following our latest trials - good performances by all resulted in a comfortable win.

Game 5 brought us up against a very strong AGGS squad who, with a number of transferred players from both Avondale and Church College, were the fancied team on the night.

In a very bruising encounter marred by a few technical fouls applied to the opposition coaches our team rose to the challenge and showed their championship winning capability playing a great defensive game and taking the win, 80 - 71.

Courtney Powell led the scoring with 28 points including four three pointers, followed closely by Captain Smash with 24 points and a huge defensive effort (11 rebounds and 10 steals), despite having to sit out half the third quarter!. Great defensive contributions from our other starters - Morgan Roberts with eight points, three blocks and six rebounds, Keziah Lewis with nine points and eight steals; Luisa Roberts with nine points, four rebounds and four steals and some great defensive work by Mikayla Ferguson to contain AGGS star player.

Game 6 against Kristin College saw our starting five warming the bench for much of the game giving some great court time to the rest of the team who stepped up hugely. Year 9 newbie Jessica Nicolson had a great debut scoring 11 points and playing really well defensively with six rebounds, two blocks and five steals! Great defensive efforts from Mikkayla Ferguson - 10 rebounds, four steals and six points; Nina Ives with seven rebounds, three steals and six points. With every player scoring for the first time this season we ran away very comfortable winners - 90 to 45.

No game this Friday - next one is Friday 11th June away to Massey - tipoff 6pm

GO LIONS, GO!

Update Term 2 - Week 3

Game 3 of the season saw an under-strength MAGS team just hold off Avondale College in a very hard-fought encounter.

Without team captain Ashleigh Kelman-Poto and Keziah Lewis who were both representing their respective clubs at the National U21 tournament, it was always going to be a tough game.

MAGS started off well with some great shooting from Morgan Roberts and Courtney Powell taking MAGS to the half time hooter with a comfortable 12 point lead. Avondale game back strongly in the 3rd quarter with some very physical contacts that rattled our girls and closed the lead to just two points.

Midway through the last quarter Avondale edged ahead briefly - a brief timeout resettled the team and with solid defensive efforts from all players and Courtney Powell continuing to hit three pointers MAGS was able to regain the lead and hold on to win 64-58.

Game Stats - Morgan Roberts 28 points, 8 blocks and 14 steals; Courtney Powell with 26 points (5 3pointers), 6 steals and 5 rebounds; Lyric Wolfgramm 8 points and 5 steals and solid defensive efforts from Mikayla Ferguson with 8 rebounds and 2 points and Luisa Roberts with 9 rebounds and 4 steals.

This Friday's away game - St Cuthbert's at Auckland Grammar School - tipoff 6pm

GO LIONS GO

As reigning Auckland Premier Champions, our girls team has a lot to live up to and with only three returning players, we have largely a brand new squad with a big task in front of them.

They are however off to a great start this season - with a comfortable win against Dio 70 - 53 on Friday that gave all players a good run in front of a great home crowd - thanks to all the house boys who we know were just there for the game!!,

Our second outing was a much tighter game against our favourite challengers, Rangitoto 67-60 on Monday night.

Stand out players from Monday night's game were our repeaters from last year's championship team Ashleigh (Smash) Kelman-Poto showing just how she earnt her nickname monstering the boards at both ends with 11 rebounds, 12 intercepts and 11 points and Morgan Roberts with 28 points, and 10 steals, shooting really well outside the arc and inside - ably assisted by newbie guard Courtney Powell with 17 points and returning juniors Keziah Lewis 9 rebounds and 4 points and Luisa Roberts 6 points and 4 rebounds.

Baptisms of fire welcomed our other team members with a very physical approach to the game, allowing Rangitoto to close the gap in the final quarter - the girls hung in there though for a historic fouth win in a row.

Please join us this Friday 7 May as we take on Avondale at home - tipoff 6pm

Game photos to follow next week

GO LIONS, GO!