PHOTO
St Kevin’s College’s Top V basketball team are South Island champions.
The team won the 2026 A schools South Island boys’ title in Dunedin this month.
The “A” tournament is for secondary schools that have a roll fewer than 300 students in years 9-13 for a single-sex school, or fewer than 600 for a co-ed school.
It is the team’s first South Island title since 2019, having finished fourth last year and second in 2024.
It took a full team effort across the four-day tournament, coach Jacob Fowler said.
“Our defence was impressive … and then just how spread out the scoring was on the offensive end.
“We had eight guys scoring at least eight points per game. It just showed the depth we have and selfless brand of basketball the boys are willing to play.”
He admitted the campaign got off to “a rocky start”.
St Kevin’s handily beat Invercargill’s Verdon College 108-50 in their opening game before slumping to a 67-60 loss to Garin College, of Nelson.
“You don’t want to lose games at tournaments but I think that that loss was almost a blessing in disguise for us.
“It gave us a bit of a wake up call that the boys probably needed and it was cool to see a response from them.”
Not much was changed but the loss did galvanise the players, he said.
“The messaging wasn’t too in-depth.
“It was pretty obvious that the players knew what they needed to do. which was a cool thing — and then they went out and did it, which is even better.”
They rattled off four straight wins to finish pool play atop the standings thanks to an impressive point differential, as three teams each had five wins and one loss.
St Kevin’s then thumped Greymouth High School 77-27 in the semifinal and beat Maruawai College 90-63 in the final.
Fowler loved seeing his side bounce back to win the title.
“The group pushed that more than me and Liam [Direen, assistant coach] did which was cool.
“They showed they wanted to go out and win it and wanted to go out there and compete at the standard that they can.”
The result means St Kevin’s has qualified for the Basketball New Zealand A national secondary schools tournament in Palmerston North later this month.
It will be the third straight year the college will feature in the showcase event with players Wade Smith, Kenton Tokai and Hamish Fowler having played in all three.
Other members of the team have also gained valuable experience at national events representing North Otago under-16 and under-18 squads over the last three years.
Fowler is hoping that experience will serve them well in Palmerston North.
“The last couple of years we’ve been, we haven’t been as successful as we’re hoping to be this year.
“Hopefully that can allow the boys to have a bit of a chip on their shoulder.”
St Kevin’s junior girls’ team earned a 10th place finish at their South Island event.
Waitaki Boys’ High School also had senior and junior teams attend South Island tournaments.
Their juniors finished ninth while their seniors finished 16th in their respective “AA” tournaments for bigger schools.