Church Basketball Team: New Zealand National Champions

The Church College of New Zealand has captured the National Secondary Schools Indoor Basketball Championships for the third time in eight years. This time, however, the Church high school swept to victory completely undefeated!

In an exciting final game against an Auckland secondary school, the team—coached by Ngatai Smith—won 66 to 41. Other games were won by equally lopsided scores, though in the semifinals a sharp team from Burnside High kept the score to a close 53 to 50.

Three players on the Church College team, Peina Smith, Tolu Finau, and Quincey Ahmu, were honored by being named to the Tournament Team, and those three, along with Lester Soloai, were named to the New Zealand National Secondary Schools Team.

Not only that—four of the team members are planning on serving missions in the near future, turning excellent rebounding and a good fast break into more spiritual challenges of spreading the gospel.