North Otago Basketball secured one of the newly restored Hanan Shields for the summer.
The men’s team — the Penguins — won the title with two wins in Ashburton last weekend.
Mid Canterbury hosted both the men’s and women’s tournaments which were held for the first time in a number of years.
The Penguins themselves were revived in 2024 and head coach Scott Kitto was stoked to “get the gang back together” this year.
“It’s such a fun group to coach . . . there’s a serious amount of talent.
“With that being our first lot of games for a couple of years, we came on and everybody was pretty unselfish getting the ball up, finding the next guy and it was fulfilling the potential that that group had.”
North Otago beat South Canterbury comfortably in their first match which set up a “pseudo final” with Mid Canterbury who also won their earlier game.
The Penguins would go on to win 101-88 powered by 39 points from Max de Geest, who was named tournament MVP.
“It was the Max of old, he turned it on,” Kitto said.
“He was a class above everyone else, especially in that second game against Mid Canterbury.
“There was a period in the second quarter where he had probably 15 points in a row on his own.”
His offensive output alongside the defensive effort from the team put them in good stead to get the win.
“We had some guys that stepped up defensively and were really, really good at just limiting their guys.”
Toby Lewis was also named in the all star five for the event.
Nine players made up the “core group” however three players — Hamish Fowler, Chase Kennedy and Boston Cathcart — were all still at school this year.
The level of young talent in the region was exciting, Kitto said.
“When I was talking with Ian [Cathcart] and Brian [de Geest, assistant coaches], we decided that ‘hey it’s a great chance for us to get some of these younger, talented kids in the mix’.”
The aim is for the tournament to be held annually with each region taking a turn at hosting.
Next year will be in Timaru with Oamaru due to host in 2028.
“It’s exciting that there’s something annually there and it means that we can look to build on each year and get some more home games hopefully.
“The way the Basketball New Zealand calendar of events aligns, there’s under-19s and then it’s nothing until national league stuff now, so it’s really good to have this and keep that incentive to keep that talent playing.”
Kitto and co were hopeful of more games to be played in Oamaru later this year but details were still being worked out.
“Bring on next year, bring on these other couple of games. We’re going to try and keep this group going for a while.
“Some NBL teams should come and watch the Penguins because there’s some pretty talented kids in that team and some guys that could really contribute to those next level teams.”
North Otago women’s team was also in action at the event.
It was their first time taking to the court for “a good number of years” coach Mike Mavor said.
“As far as I can remember, there hasn’t been a North Otago women’s team for a while.”
Despite losing both games, the team had plenty to be proud of.
“It was a really good group of girls to have in Ashburton for the day and they all improved as the day went on so it was quite encouraging.
“Maybe with another game or two we might’ve got even better.”
St Kevin’s College student Lucy Mavor was named in the all star five while still being in high school.
She was the team’s leading scorer.
North Otago will be back in 2027 when the tournament is held in Timaru.