Basketball Victoria Country, Traralgon Amateur Basketball Association & Latrobe City Council played host to over 700 elite players, coaches, team managers and their families from regional Victoria for a weekend of fierce basketball competition over the 21st and 22nd of February.

 

This is the flagship event for Basketball Victoria Country with the best basketball programs in Country Victoria pitted against each other in the spirit of town vs town competition. During a competitive Day 1, the games were of the highest standard. Divisions were determined for Day 2 where teams would be pitted against each other in a knockout setting.

 

Ballarat saw wonderful results across the board. Both the U16 and U18 Miners eventually went down gallantly in the Division 1 Quarter Finals to very strong opposition. The U18 Rush recovered form a late slip on Day 1 to qualify for the Division 2 Grand Final, where they would meet archrivals Bendigo. In a hard fought match, the Rush would unfortunately lose 31-50.

 

U18 Girls Head Coach Lucas Bourke commented “After a promising start to the Championships, our team was 2-0 going into game 3 but had a disappointing game against Traralgon, then were unable to get past the undefeated and eventual champions Bellarine in our final pool game. We finished 3rd in our pool with a 2-2 record resulting in a division 2 Semi Final against Warragul which we won then. We then lost a close game to Bendigo in the Division 2 Final. Although our results weren’t what we expected, the girls’ effort throughout the weekend was first class. We made good progress with the ‘BRP Style of Play’ and we will now focus on a positive start to the VJBL season.”

 

The tournament would culminate in a sensational result on Sunday with the U16 Rush only dropping one pool game, including a brilliant 58-25 quarter final win over Bendigo, to be crowned 2016 Division 1 Country Champions.

 

U16 Girls Head Coach Rob Baker said “The girls did an amazing job throughout the tournament, improving with each game and focused on the goals we set. Despite an early loss they showed great character to maintain their efforts and learn from the experience. They did themselves and the Association proud with the way they held themselves on and off the court.”

 

Basketball Ballarat would like to thank Basketball Victoria Country, the Latrobe City Council, Traralgon Amateur Basketball Association and the hundreds of volunteers in Country Victorian Basketball for their tireless efforts over the weekend. But most importantly thank all our parents, coaches and team managers for their support of the athletes throughout the two days, and to the athletes themselves for representing the program and the region with pride.

 

For further information please contact Manager – Athlete & Coach Development: Nathan Cooper-Brown nathan.cb@ballaratbasketball.com

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