VICTORIA COUNTRY BASKETBALL LEAGUE
The 2015/16 Victoria Country Basketball League season promises to be bigger and exciting.
Swan Hill and Southern Peninsula have returned to the CBL while Country Victoria power-house, Bendigo has registered for the first time. Bendigo officials see the CBL as an opportunity for players just out of junior ranks and the fringe players of their SEABL and Big V teams to participate in a high standard competition over summer and hence be better prepared for these premier Winter events.
The Mount Gambier Lakers are competing in the South West Conference of the CBL for the 2015/16 season. Last season the Lakers Women finished runner-up to Warrnambool Mermaids in the grand Final and the Lakers Men were beaten in the semi-final by eventual Premiers Colac Kookas.
Former SEABL National Championship Coach and Assistant Coach of the Australian Junior Women’s team, Sonya Knight, has taken over the reins as Coach of the Lakers’ Men and has already had a series of intense and demanding training sessions.
Members of the Men’s squad are Chris Mason, Troy Bird, Simon Berkefeld, Matt Berkefeld, Brad Close, Lachlan Hunter, Kurt Rodis, Mitchell Cawthorne, Sam Stafford, Teagan Brown Dellon Brown, Josh Jenner and Braiden Ousey.
Successful SECBL coach Malcolm Allen is in charge of the Lakers’ women squad comprising Sonia Bawden, Eilish McKay, Brenna McKay, Samantha Crute, Lauren Ross, Ebony McDiarmid, Malinda Markiewicz, Rachael Hines, Rebecca Trench, Casey Horrigan, Alex Walker, Brianna Walters and Abby Whitehead.
The new season opens for the Lakers on Saturday night when they host the Colac Kookas.
The Colac Women have joined the CBL this season making 6 teams in this competition.
Interest will centre on the Men’s game when they will be keen to reverse their semi-final result of last season.
This weekend begins a four home game run for the Lakers.
Next Saturday night the Lakers’ Men host Terang followed by a challenging double header home weekend against the Horsham Hornets on Saturday October 31st. and the Stawell Wildcats on Sunday November 1st.
The Colac Kookas Men opened their new season with a resounding 37 point win over the Horsham Hornets in the grand final replay and issued an early warning to opposition sides. L. Varley, S. Parker and M. Lucas led the scoring in this impressive win, without last season MVP winner L. McInerney
In their first CBL encounter, the Kookas Women went down to the Hornets, who finished fourth last season. Final scores were 49-69. On court leader, G.Varley led the scoring with 18 points.
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