By Cira Olivier

The crowd erupted as Napier’s Tamatea Intermediate School scored the winning basket in an exciting golden point tie-breaker at the Zespri AIMS Games in Tauranga this week.

The game against Mahurangi College from Warkworth went down to the wire, with a shot right on full-time disallowed due to a foul against Tamatea, keeping the score all tied up at 34-34.

This meant the game went into over-time. The team that scored first would win.

Tamatea won the tip and drove the ball down the court, only to miss their shot.

Frustrated, many thought this could be it.

Talking over each other, the team describes how a Mahurangi player got the ball down to their end and fell over, which was called a travel.

Another turnover.

Tamatea’s Lakyn Moore, 13, says he had the ball but needed to pass it with defenders on him. The ball was passed back to him after he got comfy near the three-point line.

“I shot it … I was wide open and I was taking it,” he says.

While it was in the air, his teammates were thinking, “why did you do that, we just need one point”.

This quickly turned into roaring cheers from his team and other spectators.

“We ran and tackled him,” one of his teammates says.

Tamatea team manager Simon Evans says the coaching staff, in general, aren’t big on long-range shots.

“We’re big on lay-ups.”

“Lakyn was running hot in the fourth quarter, and his confidence was high, so the coach said if you get an open look, take it,” Evans says of the change in tactics.

“It was one of those moments, it was cool.”

Tamatea has had a successful week at the Zespri AIMS Games, so far winning four games and losing three.

They came up against Mahurangi College again on Thursday morning and this time the Warkworth team came out on top by two points after another close game.

Five-a-side basketball is one of 27 sporting codes at this year’s event, which has welcomed more than 14,000 intermediate-aged athletes to Tauranga from around the country and overseas.

Article added: Thursday 04 September 2025