Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit’s return to club netball coincided with Rahui going top as the only unbeaten team in the premier competition.
Rahui were tood again as they beat fellow frontrunners Manukura Black 63-55 at the B&M Centre last night.
Selby-Rickit had got back into New Zealand at 3am yesterday along with Katarina Cooper, after the Central Pulse’s 51-44 trans-Tasman loss to the West Coast Fever in Perth on Monday night and hadn’t slept, but she still put in a good performance for Rahui last night.
“I’m really stoked to be back,” she said. “I love playing in this team, it’s much more fun.”
She said the Pulse were gutted to lose their last two games of the season in Australia and miss out on the playoffs, so their season was over.
“I’ll relax for the rest of this week, get back into the club stuff and might do a bit of basketball. I’ll wait and see what goes on with the [Silver] Ferns stuff.”
Selby-Rickit came off the bench last night and played goal shoot, where she enjoys the movement but not the actual shooting, before shifting to her preferred position of goal defence.
Her presence put paid to any hopes of a Manukura comeback late in the game as she was strong in defence and got the ball up court quickly.
Manukura looked good in the first quarter with goal attack Renee Matoe, who scored 38 from 47, shooting everything and linking up well with centre Sheridan Bignall.
But with Cooper and Hinekura Winiata pestering them in defence and stealing all the rebounds, the tide turned Rahui’s way and wing attack Alana Fraser always found someone in space in the circle.
With no reserves to call on, Manukura reshuffled things at halftime and improved, with Anania Kerehoma-Cook at goal shoot, Bignall at wing defence, Renee Te Riini at centre and Nichaela Gulbransen at wing attack.
But Rahui kept building their lead through accurate shooters Maraea Murray (24 from 30) and Miriama Selby-Rickit (28 from 35) and Manukura couldn’t catch up.
Beth McAsey showed nerves of steel to bury a shot on fulltime and deliver Feilding A1 a tight 42-41 win over Manukura Red.
With the scores locked at 41-41 and the Manukura defence called for contact, goal shoot McAsey, who shot 22 from 33, displayed a cool head to sink the shot and steal the win.
Manukura looked the better team in the first half and were leading 24-19 at halftime, forcing Feilding into errors when they were trying to feed the ball into the circle.
But Feilding picked things up in the second half and started to put the pressure on Manukura defensively.
Manukura led 33-30 at three-quarter time, but then all of a sudden Feilding leapt out to a three-goal lead, with their midcourt of centre Keri Hayden and wing attack Darci Brostow, along with wing defence Natalie Walford taking charge.
Manukura levelled things up and they traded goals before McAsey finished things on fulltime.
Hayden and Brostow were Feilding’s two best players, while defender Jodi Beaumont played well.
Manukura wing attack Ashleigh Tahiwi linked well with her shooters and Toni Heihei shuts things down at goal keep.
Diahn Strickland shot 22 from 29 for Manukura and Emma-May Murray-Fifita 19 from 25.
Both Feilding A2 and Palmerston North Girls’ High School were looking for their first win of the season, but it was Feilding who broke the drought.
Feilding won 40-38, holding on to a small lead throughout the second half after things were level at 21-21 going into the break.
Girls’ High had led 13-19 after the first quarter, but Feilding clawed their way back and eventually into the lead.
The loss puts Girls’ High, who were again without captain and defender Jess Searle, at the bottom of the table as the only team without a win.
Georgia Coombes shot nearly all of Feilding’s goals with 37 from 48, while for the schoolgirls, Hannah Rowe shot 21 from 32 and Tessa Marsh 17 from 25.
Massey kept in touch with the top four by beating Switch 51-44.
The win keeps Massey in fifth place, just three points behind Feilding A1, while Switch are in sixth place, but six points back.
Switch won the first and last quarters, but Massey were too good through the middle of the game, leading by four at halftime, a lead Switch couldn’t chase down.
Keaghan Seymour was Massey’s best shooter with 22 from 23, while Louise Ingram had 13 from 17 and Kamie Veikoso 16 from 22.
For Switch, Brooke Clarke shot 23 from 34 and Chelsea Poland 21 from 28.
MANAWATU NETBALL
Last night’s results: Rahui 63 Manukura Black 55, Massey A1 51 Switch 44, Feilding A1 42 Manukura Red 41, Feilding A2 40 PNGHS 38. P W D L PF PA B/P Pts Rahui 6 6 0 0 349 266 0 18 Manukura Blk 6 5 0 1 411 276 0 15 Feilding A1 6 4 0 2 261 234 1 13 Manukura Red 6 4 0 2 293 287 1 13 Massey A1 6 3 0 3 321 283 1 10 Switch 6 1 0 5 247 364 1 4 Feilding A2 6 1 0 5 228 343 0 3 PNGHS 6 0 0 6 244 301 2 2
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