Centrals had a number of teams take part in Tournaments over the June long weekend from Mildura, to Ballarat, to Melbourne.  2 teams won premierships in the U14 Div 1 Girls and U18 Div 1 Men.  Congratulations to Mike Herriman (Coach U14 Div 1 Girls) and Ricky Simpson (Coach U18 Div 1 Men) and their teams.  Here are reports from Aimee Herriman and Scott Rose from the 2 teams....

Irymple Basketball Association

Tri-State Junior Basketball Challenge

Lions U14 Girls Div 1

2009 PREMIERS

The U14D1 girls went to Mildura to participate in the annual tri-state challenge with teams from Vic, SA & NSW. Before we left we were asked to think of some personal offensive and defensive goals we wanted to achieve over the weekend. The first game (very early Saturday morning) we played against south. After half time it was the point of no return for south and we ended up winning 42-23. Our second game we played later that day we played against Irymple (or as we call them imapimple) the first half was dominated by us but the second half we tired off and it was pretty much shot for shot but we still ended up winning 41-30 which had us off to a great start.

Sunday’s first game was against Workers which was neck and neck all game but turnovers in last minutes caused a 4 point loss 35-39. Disappointed with our result we were determined to beat West Adelaide and got off to a great start with a 7 point lead at half time. But again fatigue and turnovers caused another loss in the final minutes but this time only by 2, 39-41. We had our fingers crossed we still had a high enough percentage to go through to the finals and we did!

So Monday morning we had another crack at West and the game was ours right from the start, they had NO chance this time, we again dominated the first half with a 21-12 half time score and fought on in the second half to win 40-28,. We were ecstatic with the result and we became the 2009 Tri-State Champs and all of us achieved at least 1 or 2 of our goals. Overall the carnival is a great learning curve and a fantastic time and we would all suggest you take on the challenge of this carnival at least once in all your basketball experiences!

#6 AIMEE HERRIMAN

U18 Div 1 Men Lions basketball

Nunawading Premiers!

We had 3 games on Saturday. Our first game was against North Adelaide Rockets and we knew we should beat them, but we unfortunately lost a close game.

This was not the start we were looking for, but we were looking forward for redemption in our second game against the home team the Nunawading Spectres. This was a tight battle as our teams were very evenly matched; fortunately we pulled away from the Specters with a 6 point win.

This got our confidence up for our next game against Woodonga. The game times were mixed up in this game as we started an hour earlier than we were supposed to, this gave us a slow start. Early in the game we were down 9-0 then we started to warm up and slowly brought back the momentum, we beat Woodonga by 4 which is a lot closer than it should have been.

On Sunday we had to play against the same teams again, this time against North we were never going to lose. We played great Defence which turned into offence which gave us an 8 point win.

After this game our confidence was high, which helped going into our second game against the Specters, this game was close all the way to the end, it took a great steal by Diesel which lead to a lay up for Jordan. This game ended in a tie which was strange as we didn’t know if we should celebrate or be upset.

Our 6^th and final game before the finals was against Woodonga, we wanted a quick and easy win to rest before the finals but Woodonga had other plans and had some unusual tactics which kept them close on the score board. We still won but only by 12 in a game which we don’t want to remember.

On Monday was the Grand Final against Nunawadding Specters, the home team of the competition. This game was of a high intensity and was another close game. We were down in the last few minutes.  However some lockdown, team defence and some clutch shooting by Jordan Centenera and a buzzer beating, game winner jump shot by Ky Oliver helped us to win by 2.

The weekend was a success with our team chemistry becoming closer and our Defence becoming the key to all of our wins. Everyone from the team put in 100% effort which is why we were able to win the Grand Final. The MVP of the Final was Daniel “Diesel” Carlin, who was unstoppable inside.

By Scott Rose