Thursday 19th of July saw the finals of the 2006 Secondary Schools Basketball Challenge.

The first game of the night almost did not get started when Nukutere form 3&4 girls found it hard to field a team. On the other side the Tereora girls were ready to rock and roll. The Tereora girls ended up with a convincing win of 34 - 12, but the score does not reflect the tremendous effort put in from the Nukutere girls.

The final for the boys form 3 & 4 was between favourites Papaaroa and Tereora. The game was a very close one and at half time the score was 3-2 in favour of Papaaroa. Tereora seemed to like the underdog tag as they fought their way back into the game and were the eventual winners 11-6.

Game no.3 for the night was the form 5 girls final. During the rounds the games between Nukutere and Tereora had been some of the most exciting with the difference only being one or two points. That again was the case in the final with Tereora coming out on top 18-17.

The form 5 boys final was the lowest scoring final for the night with the final score being 7-5 to Titikaveka. The Tereora team gave it their best shot but the height advantage that Titikaveka had was too much to get past. Both teams played very well and there was certainly some great talent amongst that set of boys.

In the newly added grade of form 6 & 7 mixed, there was a big turnout of players for the final night of competition. The temptation was too much for the respective teachers/coaches with Ms Matheson of the Mixed Green team and Mr Amosa of the Mixed Blue team putting on a singlet and having a run with their teams. The game was very close with the scores tied at 4 a piece at half time. But the points started to rack up for both teams in the second half with Rheima of the Mixed Blue team top scoring on 8 points. But that was not enough to secure her team the victory with the Mixed Green team winning 18-17.

Each team was given a basketball to give away to their MVP player so we hope all those students that received the awards use them to practice their skills to come back bigger and better for the next competition.