North Otago Basketball was represented on the national stage for the third consecutive season. Their under-18 side finished 14th at the Basketball New Zealand Under-18 Nationals in Auckland earlier this month. Head coach Jacob Fowler was stoked with the result. "At the start of the tournament, if you told we would come away 14th I would’ve been pretty happy. "I think it highlights what can happen when you get a group of boys together and progress them through the ranks." For a handful of players, it was their third time attending a national tournament as the North Otago under-16 team qualified in 2024 and 2025. Getting a win in pool play over Te Aroha did wonders for the team’s confidence, Fowler said. "For some of those boys at the under-16 level, I think they had only won one game over the last two years so to see them go up there and win a game in pool play was pretty cool. "For maybe four of five of those boys, it was the first time they had won a game in pool play and then to see the confidence that gave them to compete at a high level was cool for me to see.” They took pride in being one of the smallest regions represented at the event. "While we may not have knocked off some of the bigger teams up there in our games, we definitely took a lot of confidence away knowing we could hold our own against them. “There’s definitely some bigger regions [we played] where we definitely felt like we held our own it’s just about learning the confidence and the ability to finish those games out on the positive side.” The team did not go home completely empty handed as assistant coach Liam Direen won one of the half court shot competitions held across the tournament. “He’s been eyeing that up for the last couple of years and he finally got a crack,” Fowler said. Despite the under-16 side missing out on qualifying this year, Waitaki Boys’ High School student Boston Cathcart and St Kevin’s College student Troy Smith were included in the Otago squad which finished 12th at their national event last week.
