St Hilda's Collegiate claimed the South Island Secondary Schools basketball title with a resounding 75-56 win over Christchurch Girls' High School at the Edgar Centre tonight.
After a close first quarter, St Hilda's pulled away, as their depth of talent began to tell. They were clinical in their execution, hitting their shots and rebounding well to ensure a quality Christchurch Girls' team never got a sniff.
They will progress to the National Championships which they will enter with high hopes, possessing a team that passes the ball well, has scoring threats all over the court and is tough to score against at the other end.
The win comes four days after the school won the Junior South Island title.
In the boys section, Middleton Grange won a hard fought game with Burnside High School by 90-76 in front of a good crowd.
Despite entering as hot favourites, Middleton Grange could not get their game going, turning the ball over and struggling to get former Otago Boys' High School ace Sam Timmins touches early on.
They never let the game get away from them though, keeping it close and pulling away in the final quarter as Timmins, Barclay Miller and Jackson Stent showed their class.
Burnside, who held a two-point lead heading into the final quarter, were hot for most of the game and saw big performances from Shou Nisbet, Toby Gillooly and Blake Alps.
Earlier in the day Otago Boys' High School won a rematch with King's High School to qualify for the National Championships. The win comes two weeks after King's beat Otago Boys' to claim the Otago championship.
Otago Boys' would go on to finish fifth and King's seventh, with a top six finish required for National Championship qualification.
Other Otago results saw John McGlashan College finish 16th, Waitaki Boys' High School finish 17th and Wakatipu College finish 20th in the 22-team tournament.
In the girls competition Otago Girls' High School were Otago's only other team, finishing 13th out of 16 teams.
