Westlake Boys Premier vs Mount Albert Grammar School
Last Friday night our Premier Basketball played its second game against a tough Mount Albert Grammar Team.
Just like the first match-up earlier in the season, the game was low scoring throughout the first half. Both teams were defending well and gathering their defensive rebounds. Offensively Westlake were moving the ball and creating good looks, but they were not always able to get the ball into the bottom of the net. Captain Isaac Letoa was leading from the front on the offensive end, driving hard inside and connecting on his jump shot from both outside and inside the arc. He lead all scorers at the break with 16 points; behind this Westlake was holding onto the lead by 7, 29 – 22.
Westlake came out of the halftime break keen to push their lead. Behind some impressive defensive pressure Lake managed to force turnovers and push the ball for easy buckets. The starting guards Letoa, Reuben Fitzgerald and Marc Malingin were too quick in transition for the MAGS defence and pushed Westlake’s lead into double figures. Beautiful offensive ball movement lead to a big 3-pointer from James Moors and his frontcourt mate Thabo Manyere grabbed a couple of easy buckets. Josh Hidalgo and Scott Telfer came off the bench and continued the momentum, playing some fantastic defence, forcing fouls and hitting shots. MAGS found it hard to contain Westlake in this period when they got out and ran. Westlake had pushed their lead to 18, and headed into the final quarter 52 – 34 up.
In the final quarter MAGS made a push to start the quarter, getting some early baskets and also drawing shooting fouls on the home team. After a slow start to the period Westlake started to get back into their rhythm from the third period. They finished the quarter strong on both ends and manged to get another 23 point quarter (giving them a very solid 46 points for the second half). Westlake would manage to grind out another tough win against a good MAGS team, 75 – 51.
Letoa had a great game coming back from the eye cut he suffered on Monday in the game against Rangitoto College. He led all scorers with 33 points and dished out 5 assists. Hidalgo dropped 12 points to go with 3 steals. Scott Telfer was huge off the bench with his energy, pulling in 9 rebounds (6 of these offensive) and got an efficient 7 points. Big man Moors was a big help on both ends getting 9 rebounds to go with 7 points.