The Millicent basketball under 12 boys had 2 teams compete in Adelaide recently in the SA Country championships. Our first team competed in division 1 and after a slow start with a first up surprise loss to Eastern Hills they played great team basketball to defeat Port Pirie by over 40 points. The pleasing aspect to this solid win was the praise and thanks the team received from parents of Port Pirie for the wonderful sportsmanship involved in the game as our players continually encouraged their opponents.

We then played Bordertown and had a comfortable 24 point win, which set us up for a quarterfinal showdown with a strong, undefeated Mildura team and despite being 10 points down in the second quarter the boys fought hard for a one point win. This put us in the semi-finals against Great Southern which includes Victor Harbour and Goolwa, they were undefeated all year and had come off a solid 36 point win against Mount Gambier. We played great basketball and were 3 points down with 5 minutes and lost by eight in the end. Great Southern went on to defeat Whyalla in the final by 25 points but their coach was full of praise for our Millicent team who he felt had been the only team to challenge his boys. So a top 4 finish in the State Country Championship was a good reward for the team which won 3 tournaments during the town team season and always made at least semi- finals. Consistently finishing higher than larger towns like Mount Gambier, Murray Bridge and the list goes on, the future is bright for Millicent Basketball

The U16 2^nd team girls had an easy first day with only 2 games. They won both games easily against Keith 32-10 and against Clare 56-8. On Sunday they were scheduled to play 3 games in 5 hours with another good win first up against the Riverland 44-16. They had secured a place in the Div 4 Grand Final but still had one more game against Mt Gambier. The girls conserved energy in this game but still had a good win.

In the Grand Final they came up against Mt Gambier again with Mt Gambier taking the court focused on reversing the result of their last game. The game was close in the early stages with Mt Gambier’s taller girls not allowing Grace Chay and Amy Wetherall the space they had in the previous games. Some good defensive pressure by Keah Lynch, Victoria Lucas and Jess Allan created a number of turnovers and allowed Millicent to keep the scoreboard moving. Scores were still close in the third quarter before Millicent raised their level of defensive pressure with Leia Stupple and Kristen Freeman maintaining control of the ball and allowing the Magics shooters to score freely. Millicent won the game 35 – 20. 

The under 16 girls div 1 team had a very good weekend winning all games on Saturday which gave them the opportunity to play in the quarter finals in division 1. On Saturday the first game was against Murray Bridge where despite a slow start and a desperate burst in the last quarter the girls managed to win by 3 points. The next 2 games were against Barossa Valley and Mildura 2 which they won comfortably with good team work and some strong defence. The next day in the quarter final where they played Great Southern (Victor Harbour, Goolwa) despite staying in the game just could not find a way to bridge the gap that Great Southern had established early in the second quarter and went down fighting to lose by 5 points.

Alex Walker had a stand out tournament and was named player of the under 16 competition.  

The under 12 girls who competed in division 3 had an outstanding weekend almost taking out the Grand Final. With all but 2 players able to play next year in under 12’s again the girls have performed very well this year. They started the weekend off very well defeating Riverland, Willunga and Broken Hill and then drew with Bordertown in their last minor round game. This placed them equal top and in the Grand Final against Bordertown. This game was tight and tough all the way through and our girls had the upper hand with 2 minutes to go but just couldn’t hold on to win, going down by 2 points. Over the weekend the team made of Celeste Stratford, Maddie Wilkinson, Kate Walker, Paige Nitschke, Hannah Nitschke, CharlotteTurner, Maddie Haggett and Kayleigh Taylor and coached by Tony Stratford play some great team basketball.   

The under 16 boys had a successful weekend, winning two of their 3 games on the Saturday. In the first match, the boys had a close game against York Valley, but went down by 11 points at the end. Later in the day they played against Broken Hill. This game was all tied up at 3 quarter time, but the Hutchesson brothers (Cooper and Tanner) dug deep in the final quarter and gave the team the momentum it needed to win the game by 9 points. The third game of the day was against Murray Bridge. The boys worked hard all game, winning by 6 points and advancing through to the division 1 play offs.

The qualifying game on the Sunday morning was against Naracoorte. The boys lead early in the game, but struggled to score during the second quarter, letting Naracoorte take the lead. The remainder of the game was a closely contested match, but the Magic boys were unable to regain the lead, going down by 13 points at the final siren.