The 2025 Winter Club Season for Senior Basketball Teams concluded with 14 teams taking the court for A Grade Finals
Our 2025 season finished with Club Finals being run over a week instead of all on one specific day, with August 21 being the last night where our senior grades wrapped up their seasons. Photos from our Thursday Night Finals available here.
Miles Toyota Men’s Premier League: Atami vs Lincoln University (7 Teams)
A new Men’s Premier League champion was guaranteed, after the two lower seeds both caused upsets in their semifinal matchups.
Lincoln University and Atami both boasted NBL experience on their rosters, and early on it looked like the LU Rams were going to win their first ever trophy in this competition, going ahead by 11 points in the second quarter. Mana Martin (16, 8r), Seb Wilson (15, 9r), Cody Steven (12), and Brody Cooper (11, 8r) did most of the scoring for LU, but it was the teams’ dominance on the glass (21 Offensive Rebounds) that caused Atami no end of problems.
The game flipped after half-time, where a stellar third quarter saw Atami pull the game back to even-footing, as they outscored LU 26-15 in the frame. Atami moved ahead with ten minutes to go, and withstood every challenge from LU that followed. Finals MVP Ihaka Cate (16, 12r) made some key plays down the stretch to help, with younger brother Tawhiri Cate scoring two key lay-ups in the dying minutes to turn a two-point lead into a six-point one. Toby Hunt (16) and Hoani Ifopo-Togia (10) helped on the Atami scoreboard, while Nick Erwood (7, 11r) was a steadying influence on his team.
Head Coach Fraser Costley finished off the local season with another trophy, his Atami team completing the comeback, and holding on to win 78-69. This was Atami’s first Men’s Premier title since 2013, after coming extremely close multiple times.
Miles Toyota Women’s Premier League: Checkers vs Lincoln University (6 Teams)
After a very tight opening quarter, Checkers outscored Lincoln University 53-32 across the middle two quarters to claim their fourth consecutive Miles Toyota Women’s Premier League Championship 91-68.
A promising start for LU quickly turned sour, as one of their starting five suffered a serious injury only five minutes into the game. Adrenaline kept the LU Rams going for a few more minutes, pushing out to a 19-11 lead, before Checkers responded with a 12-0 run, and never looked back.
Hana Lacey Rameka played all 40 minutes (24, 12r), Kate Herman (17) had less than 60 seconds on the bench, and Madison Cunningham (11, 9r) all gave LU some hope, but it was Checkers’ night.
The Finals MVP was awarded to Kavanah Lene (26p, 8r, 5a, 5s), and she had plenty of support from throughout her Checkers’ team. Maddie Morrow (30) drained five three-point baskets, and Ava Jones (15) joined Kavanah in double-figure scoring.
Men’s Division One: Atami Casa de Banos vs Gators Black (11 Teams)
Despite only just failing to secure spots one and two on the season ladder, it was still no surprise that Gators Black and Atami met for the third straight year in the final game of the season!
Atami was able to pull ahead of Gators early in the second quarter and then push their lead to double figures just after half-time. They never let Gators close enough after this, to make the outcome ever feel in doubt. Atami etched their name in the S. A. Bell Trophy for the third straight season after winning a low-scoring affair 66-55.
Patrick Rodger (19) was recognised as the Finals MVP for his performance.
Women’s Division One: Halswell Green vs Halswell Red (4 Teams)
2025 marked the tenth consecutive season that a Halswell team had qualified to play in the Grand Final for the Women’s Division One Grade. The 2025 game being a reprise of the 2020 Grand Final, where Halswell knew they were leaving with a trophy, regardless of whether Green or Red won on the day!
Halswell Green was unbeaten in the regular season, and this form held true in the Grand Final, as they left no doubt in a 53-34 win, seizing the lead in the second quarter, and never coming close to relinquishing it afterwards.
Charlotte King dropped in 9 points, and was named as the Women’s Division One Finals MVP
French Cup: Gators vs St. Andrew’s College Checkers (6 Teams)
This was the last Final to be played on our Sunday ticket, and did not disappoint whatsoever, as clutch play after clutch play was made by both teams, as it took not one, but two overtime periods to crown our 2025 French Cup champions.
St. Andrew’s was cruising mid-way through the second quarter, up 43-23, before the Gators started an earnest fight to get back into the game. Only three points separated the two teams as they entered what was expected to be the final ten minutes of the game. Seven lead changes and ties later, and it was 85-85 as the fourth quarter ended. Another seven points each saw the need for a second OT period. It was here that Finals MVP Hannah Morton-Jones scored her forty-ninth and fiftieth points of the game with less than one second remaining, breaking yet another tie, to help Gators win a thrilling 103-101 2OT victory.
Men’s 23U Championship: Lincoln University Bulls vs University of Canterbury (10 Teams)
Men’s 23U Plate: Gators Green (5 Additional Teams)
We again had 15 teams in total enter our Men’s 23U competition, with the teams here competing for the championship cup, or plate. Gators Green won the plate with a perfect 5-0 record in this section of the competition.
As is becoming the custom for this competition, no team has been able to go back-to-back in terms of championships in this grade since the LU Bulls run from 2014-2017, and this year was no different.
Unfortunately for UC, this was a wire-to-wire win for LU, as they surged to leads of 15+ in the second, third and fourth quarters. Scott Kitto did mange to get his UC charges to undertake a methodical fightback late in the game – closing the margin to five points with a minute to go, but the LU Bulls were able to score enough points from the Free Throw line to secure the 77-70 win, and perhaps starting a new dynasty in terms of M23 championships.
Brody Cooper was a well-deserved recipient of the Finals MVP award for this grade, posting 19, 8r, 2s
Men’s 20U Division I: Horomaka Gators vs Pioneer Cashmere Maroon (13 Teams)
Men’s 20U Division II: UC Christ’s College White vs Checkers Black (11 teams)
The Division I Grand Final featured two teams battling player availability issues, as sickness was taking its toll on both sides.
Ultimately, it was the deeper bench that Horomaka brought to the Grand Final which saw them fight back from an early 16-point deficit to pull level with Pioneer Cashmere in the third quarter. This comparative advantage was especially obvious in crunch-time, as Horomaka grabbed multiple offensive rebounds off their own team’s missed Free Throws in the final minutes of the game, to help seal a 76-70 win.
Louis Dowall scored 18 points to help his team win, and be named as Finals MVP for Division I.
Division II saw UC Christ’s College win comfortably, 83-60, over Checkers Black, with Hugo Trolove (17p) named Finals MVP.
