Led by former junior Tall Black Sam King, Otago was competitive in all of its seven games.
It could have finished one place higher but was beaten 93-87 by Canterbury in the playoff for third on Saturday.
King, who was named in the tournament team, top scored for Otago with 22 points to complete an impressive campaign. The power forward was the competition's second leading point scorer with 147 points and averaged 21 points a game.
Point guard Micah Lepaio also finished in the top five for points scored with 118 points in seven games.
Coach Greg Brockbank said his side had achieved its goal of reaching the semifinals but had some regrets.
''We do feel a little aggrieved seen as Porirua won and we did beat them when we played them earlier,'' he said.
''And we felt like we should have beaten Canterbury both times we played them.''
That said, the team will form the core of the Otago Nuggets - if the franchise team is revived in time for next season - and showed some promise.
''That is half the reason why we entered. It was not just for the Nuggets looking forward, but so the guys had an opportunity to play [at a higher level].''
Otago beat Porirua 84-82 on the opening day but Porirua bounced back to beat Otago 92-80 in the semifinal on Friday and then defeated the highly rated Waitakere side 71-67 in the final on Saturday.
Waitakere had more success in the women's tournament. Milomilo Nanai led all scorers with 20 points to help guide her side to a comfortable 78-64 win against Harbour in the final.
The Otago women started the tournament well but faded to finish sixth in the seven team competition.
Otago was thrashed 73-57 in its last match against Counties Manukau 1, as Tall Fern guard Jordan Hunter ran amok with 30 points.
Coach George Robinson said his side struggled following back to back losses on Friday.
''After we lost to Porirua and then to Waikato in the afternoon, the girls weren't mentally there,'' Robinson.
''But throughout the tournament we still played really well and it was good development to play against the quality of payers that we did.''
