A sporting weekend can entail fishing, watching the next generation at play or maybe a bit of shopping.
Or it can mean busting it up and down Court 4 at Pettigrew Green Arena in Taradale, playing Tupu men’s league basketball with a view to being one of two Central Zone teams to qualify for the national championships.
The here and now for the Quentin Solomon-coached Gisborne Basketball Association crew on that mission features games against Manawatu at 11am and Taranaki at 5pm tomorrow.
The Central Zone semifinals are at 10am on Sunday, followed by the final and play-off for third and fourth at 2pm.
The Taranaki game will reunite Gisborne with one of the greats of the Rising Suns’ second division heydays - Dwayne Tamatea, who is coaching Taranaki.
The Scott Muncaster-led GBA lost 105-67 to Hawke’s Bay at the Gisborne YMCA on Saturday but interest in and excitement around the modern equivalent of national second division hoops is growing.
Social media is abuzz nationwide and there is great interest among youth and veterans, particularly in the provinces.
“We trust the structures we’ve embedded at training in the last month,” Solomon said. “In the game against Hawke’s Bay we ran our offensive plays and created open shots. Defensively, we’ve got to do the same thing. We’ve got to maintain discipline, trust our principles, and we’ll be OK.”
The GBA team are Scott Muncaster (c), Carl Riini (vc), Adam Harford, Adam Nepe, Adrian Peachey, Thomas Kepa, Felix Sparks, CJ Tarei, Cody Tarei, Ryan Walters, Dom Wilson.
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