The crowd was in full voice as the final minutes of the National Boys' Under 13 Basketball final played out on Saturday evening at the Edgar Centre.
With the game teetering on a knife edge, the entire arena seemed to take the side of either North Harbour or Waitakere West. It was not just those invested in the game either. Kids from Wellington, Rotorua, Canterbury and others, all were caught up in the atmosphere.
It was a reminder of just how good actually being at a game can be.
As Macklemore's ‘Can't Hold Us' rang out around the arena during a series of timeouts in the last minute, there were kids up dancing, clapping and chanting for their team. It created an electric atmosphere.
The players, for their part, remained calm and collected. Desperate yes, but not frazzled.
In the end it was Waitakere West, led by the classy tournament MVP Luka Crosbie, who emerged with a 56-55 win.
It capped off a day which also included the girls' final, in which Canterbury Country overcame an early 11-point deficit to beat North Harbour 58-49.
After a tough few months for Basketball Otago, it has been good to see organizational successes such as this. For four days this national tournament ran without a hitch, thanks largely to Greg Brockbank, a hard-working team of volunteers and a handful of BBNZ staff on hand.
In fact it was third tournament in the past month to be successfully run by the organization. Both the ‘A' Secondary Schools South Island Tournament and the Junior Secondary Schools South Island Tournament were successfully run by BBO as well. It shows despite the issues, they are still more than capable of hosting a 40-team national tournament, which has to be encouraging.
