VJBL Report - Round 7 2009
U14 Girls
The Miners under 14 Girls travelled to Greensborough to play Diamond Valley 2 last Friday night, in Round 7 of the Victorian Junior Basketball League.
Ballarat had another slow start to the game and it wasn’t until the second quarter that they took over on the scoreboard, holding Diamond Valley scoreless for the entire quarter.
Relentless defensive pressure throughout the third quarter enabled Ballarat to increase its lead and take a handy 28-point advantage into the final quarter.
Imogen Wilson was again Ballarat’s stand out player, stamping her authority on the game at both ends of the floor. Guard Lydia Edwards was also instrumental in helping stretch the eventual winning margin to 38-points. Ballarat 60 defeated Diamond Valley (2) 22.
U16 Girls
The Miners under 16 Girls played away against Knox last Friday night.
Ballarat came out firing with two early three pointers to Jane Douglass helping Ballarat establish a 12-point first quarter lead.
The Knox girls picked up their intensity in the second quarter but Ballarat held on to increase the margin to 14 points at the major break.
The third and fourth quarters belonged to Ballarat as Ella Burton, Maddie Davis and Abigail Wehrung preformed well against Knox’s physicality.
Ballarat eventually coming away with a convincing win 46 – 21.
U14 Boys
The Miners under 14 boys played at home last Friday night in their round 7 VJBL match up against Ringwood.
After an aggressive start to the game, Ballarat managed to restrict Ringwood to 9 first half points, thanks largely to the efforts of Ben Martin and Zac Carthew.
With a handy lead at halftime Ballarat coach Michael Agnew was able to give extended court time to Billy Douglass and Tom McMaster, who both grabbed their opportunities and led the way at the offensive end of the floor to see Ballarat manage a 15-point win. Defeating Ringwood 45 – 30.
Coach Agnew impressed with the way his team played.
“It was great to see the boys string together a full 40 minutes of good basketball.”
U16 Boys
The Miners under 16 Boys played host to Kilsyth at the WIN Minerdome.
After a disappointing result last week Ballarat returned to the court determined and focused on the game ahead.
Kilsyth had no response for Ballarat’s pressure at the offensive end, allowing Ballarat to jump out to a solid 25-point advantage by the half time break.
The third quarter didn’t go all Ballarat’s way as Kilsyth tried hard to reduce the margin, but just when Kilsyth mounted a comeback, Ballarat picked up it’s scoring output and managed to run out the third and fourth quarters in a good style.
Sean Massey and Anthony Fisher continued their good form but it was Josh Keys who dominated the scoring for the majority of the match with the junior Miners taking the win 65 – 33.
U18 Boys
The under 18 Miners boys returned to the court after their week off, due to the nationals championships last week, with two games against Kilsyth and Melbourne Tigers over the weekend.
vs Kilsyth
Ballarat got off to a strong start and held an early first quarter lead thanks to some aggressive offensive transition and good team defence.
Kilsyth came back late in the quarter but a Jarrod Fryar 3-pointer on the buzzer gave Ballarat a first quarter lead of 1-point.
Ballarat’s Josh Grover did a tremendous job throughout the first half helping Ballarat to control the transition game and extended their lead to 6 points at half time.
In the third quarter the defensive pressure from Ballarat increased and they held Kilsyth to 10 points. Kilsyth brought the margin back to 5 points early in the last quarter but Ballarat steadied to maintain a healthy lead and by beating the third placed team kept their season alive. Ballarat 63 defeated Kilsyth 53.
vs Melbourne Tigers
Top of the ladder team Melbourne had averaged over 75 points per game this season, so Ballarat’s plan was to try and slow the game down. The strategy worked and if not for Ballarat’s struggle to finish off in offence they would have been much closer – down by 8 points at quarter time.
It was a physical game throughout and a real grind for both teams. Ballarat played some tremendous defence in the last half but unfortunately just couldn’t get the scores on the board.
A couple of late fouls gave Melbourne some easy points to finish and the final margin of 45 – 29, not really indicating how close Ballarat were to beating the top team.
Coach Daniel Sutton was extremely pleased with his teams performance against Melbourne.
“Our game against Melbourne was almost twice as good as our win Friday night against Kilsyth. We held a class outfit to 45 points. Not a win on the scoreboard but some really big steps forward.”
Next weeks games: Friday 8th May
Miners Under 18 Boys vs Blackburn @ Blackburn
Miners Under 16 Boys vs Knox 2 @ Knox
Miners Under 14 Boys vs Melbourne 2 @ MSAC
Miners Under 16 Girls vs Bendigo @ Home 8:20pm
Miners Under 14 Girls vs Eltham 2 @ Home 8:20pm
For further information contact Sarah Monck on 5338 1220 or sarah.monck@ballaratbasketball.com
