Pietermaritzburg Girls High School hosted another successful all girls basketball event in which they ended up the winners by defeating long time rivals Pretoria High School for Girls in the final.
Here is the tournament report provided by Val Fowler who takes time to organise the tournament every year and makes sure that it continues to have the success that it has had over the years:
” Schoolgirls’ basketball is alive and well in some of our schools. The league is in full swing. Voortrekker, traditionally a top netball school, has made a welcome return to basketball. Regrettably, the standard of play and the number of age-group teams is down in many of the schools. Despite these negatives a most exciting and competitive Invitation U19 Schools Tournament was held at the St John’s and GHS courts this weekend, attracting a number of teams from outside of the province.Sixteeen teams took part; ten in the A-section and six in the B-section. UKZN, a regular entrant, made a clean sweep of their pool games, but as always were ineligible for the semi-final and final rounds. Their pool was represented by Pretoria High School for Girls and St John’s, in the semi-finals. They were joined by Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High and Epworth. Pretoria High School for Girls, quite dominant in the pool games went on to beat Epworth. The local GHS team, in rampant form in the pool games, accounted for St John’s 66-20 in the other semi-final. UKZN beat The Glen, from Pretoria, for positions five and six; Alex had a close tussle against the improving Durban Girls’ High School which they won; and Danville 1 defeated newcomers, Lereko, from the Free State, in their last match.
The St John’s team has played consistent basketball for the past few seasons and controlled the bronze medal clash from the start, although Epworth put up a good fight. The final score, 38-26, gave St John’s a well-deserved third place.
The final, between old rivals, Pretoria High School for Girls and Pietermaritzburg, was eagerly anticipated. On paper, the local team had a much better balanced side, but Pretoria had a few stars. However, right from the start the local girls showed what team play and good defence was all about. The score at the end of the first quarter was 13-2 in favour of the PMB GHS team. They continued to apply the pressure in the second quarter and maintained a sound lead. The half time score was 22-4; only one basket per quarter for the Pretoria team. As the game progressed the GHS coach was able to use all twelve players in the game and still maintain the momentum required to keep comfortably ahead.
The final score 36-19 gave the Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High 1st Team the gold medal position.
The B-section, run on a round-robin basis, provided many nail-biting finishes. The result of the final match of the tournament was the decider for second and third position and it had all the thrills of a major final. The Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High Junior Team traded baskets with Maritzburg Christian School’s 1st Team and at full time the scores were level. During extra time both teams missed vital free-throws. With three second on the clock the GHS Juniors sealed victory with a good lay-up shot. The GHS B team, playing more consistent basketball, won all their round-robin games fairly convincingly and so won the B-section, followed by their Junior Team and then MCS.
Final standings were: A section: 1st PMB GHS; 2nd Pretoria HSG; 3rd St John’s; 4th Epworth; 5th The Glen; 6th Alex; 7th DGHS; 8th Danville 1st and 9th Lereko.
B-section: 1st Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High B Team; 2nd Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High Juniors; 3rd MCS; 4th Eshowe and St Mary’s; 6th Danville Juniors.
Outstanding players: Bantwana Zulu (GHS) – top player of the B-section; M Mokoko (Pretoria) L ihle Bhengu (St John’s) and Nobu Phuza (GHS) – valuable A-Team players; and Sbahle Mkhize (GHS) Team player of the tournament.”
Article by Val Fowler edited by Victor Shakineza
