Waitaki Girls High School Wildfire came to play and the young side displayed passion to take the title 41-19 on Saturday.
Maheno never gave up but just could not get the ball through the hoop.
It was a case of the vastly experienced Maheno, which has been back in premier grade for three seasons and made the finals every time, against the raw youth and exuberance of Waitaki Wildfire.
Wildfire, as it has done over the latter half of the competition, was the first team to settle and it took the game by the scruff of the neck early in the first quarter.
In other premier games, Valley Gold beat Waitaki Girls Lightning Strike 37-30 to finish third, while St Kevin's Senior A downed Valley Silver 40-25 to finish fifth.
Kurow defeated Athletic 32-20 to finish seventh.
In the second section of division one, St Kevin's senior B beat Valley Bronze 35-34 in a thriller.
St Kevin's, which had the same 10 players throughout the season, had two of them out for the final.
The team played through with Harriet Heaphy excelling in midcourt and feeding the ball to shooter Peta Katoa, while Ruby Bradley picked up crucial ball.
Goal shoot Angie Talanoa stood out until she was injured.
She played a dominant role while Marce Ballantyne stood out on defence for Valley making some crucial intercepts.
Other grade winners were Waitaki Girls A (division 1, section 3), Twizel Volts (division 1, section 4) and Valley Yellow (division 1, section 5).
-By Terry O'Neill
