Tall Fern Match Up a Task Too Tall
North Canterbury are 2–0 for the start of their 2024 campaign, beating University of Canterbury 84–58 thanks to a 49-point performance from Esra McGoldrick. NC, boosted by the return of Ivy Brown from her first season at Florida Southwestern, was tested early on as UC kept themselves within arms reach through the play of new duo Oceanna Estrada and Nami Nitta.
The second half belonged to McGoldrick as she started to catch fire, pouring in 30 of her 49 points after the break en route to the stand-out performance for week 2. The Tall Ferns’ size and athleticism proved too much for UC to handle, helping NC cruise to victory. Although the loss will sting for UC, they’ll be happy with how they have played for most of the 2024 season. Their attention will briefly shift towards the 3x3 Tietary Nationals next weekend.
Lincoln University put together a more complete performance on their way to a 92–47 victory over Atami. The story of the first half was some dominant guard play from third-year scholar Kate Herman, pouring in 17 of her 19 points by halftime. New LU scholar Madison Cunningham showed the problems she could cause for opposing teams, hitting four shots from the perimeter and sending one Atami shot into the stands late in the shot clock on an impressive debut. Atami struggled to get any rhythm on the offensive end as all scorers were kept to single digits.
It was a much tighter affair in the first game of the round, with Halswell bouncing back from their round 1 loss to steal a 60–59 win against Checkers. Deja vu set in for the back-to-back champions who once again saw a double-digit second-quarter lead disappear by halftime. A back-and-forth second half left the door open for either team looking for their first win of the year, and overtime looked on the cards as teams traded baskets in a tight one down the stretch. A single late free throw from Grace Neilson was enough for Halswell to secure the win, and leave Checkers to wait for at least another week. Courtney Godinet led all scorers with 21.
Round 3 Match-ups:
9am Halswell vs North Canterbury
10.35am Checkers vs Atami (Game of the Week)
University of Canterbury vs Lincoln University deferred due to 3x3 Tertiary Nationals.
