Magic tastes success at Junior Country Basketball Championships with the Div 2 under 14 boys winning while all 3 div one teams, under 14, 18 girls and under18 boys finished in the top 4 of SA Country in their respective div 1 competitions.  

14 boys:The under 14 boys had an outstanding weekend winning all games played against quality big town teams that included Pt Augusta, Whyalla, Broken Hill, Barossa Valley which were their best teams. The only team that that Magic played that had a div one team as well was Eastern Hills (Mt Barker area). All the games except for the Grand final were played at Pasadena in the sweltering conditions but luckily the Grand Final on Monday was played in air conditioned Arena (Basketball headquarters), where the sixers play.

 The 1^st game against Barossa Valley was a confidence booster and the feature was the great teamwork in both offence and defence. Magic 51 defeat Barossa 21

 

In the 2^nd game against Pt Augusta who got off to a great start had our boys in a bit of trouble early as we struggled to finish of our work while Pt Augusta were very efficient in the 1^st half. In the 2^nd half however the tables were turned and Magic tighten up their defence, which created some easier baskets from Pt Augusta turnovers. Magic 48 defeated Port Augusta 27

 The 3^rd game against Broken Hill was a pressure game as the teams went basket for basket for most of the game. It was late in the fourth where Magic gained the ascendancy which came from full court pressure defence. Magic 44 defeated Broken Hill 38

 In the last minor round game Magic were slow out of the blocks and really battled up until half time against Eastern Hills. The second half was all one way as Magic poured on the pressure and won 50 – 22.

 The semi- final against Whyalla was a tight affair right to the end with neither team prepared to let go of the chance to play in the Grand Final however Magic saved the beat to last and narrowly won 38 – 35

 The Grand Final was rescheduled due to the heat the air-conditioning at Adelaide Arena where the Adelaide 36ers play which was much to the boys delight as they played on centre court. The GF was a complete team effort as they were pitted against a bigger stronger Adelaide Plains team. Before the games started Bailey Murphy who had been up all night with a tummy bug kept was a doubtful starter but he turned up to play the team were inspired to do well. Excellent defence by Jack Gray and Josh Levison was scoring and rebounding strongly that was inspirational and with Alex Buhlmann strong in defence and also finishing his scoring opportunities the team was all working hard. Bailey Poulish was very reliable, Doug Treloar found his offensive drive and provided numerous assists with his great passing and Kade Bradley found ways to score while Bailey Murphy who ended up playing kept the defensive pressure on opponents. Matt Withers got himself into the right spot continually and was rewarded with plenty of scoring opportunities. The final score was Magic 48 Adelaide Plains 38

The under 18 boys team played Roxby Downs I the 1^st game for the weekend winning by 5 points 38 – 33. The game wasn't pretty Basketball but Josh Murphy, Pat Reid and Ben Wilson were too big and too strong and dominated the rebounds both end of the floor and to back this up shot the ball very well in this game. Going into the game Magic were a bit worried as Roxby Downs had 5 state players.  

 The 2^nd game was against Strathalbyn and with a confidence boosting win 49 – 29 by Magic all was looking good for the next game. Magic had Strathalbyn under consistent pressure which found them taking rushed shots and Jed Telfer finding range the Millicent boys continued to improve and pulled away to an easy victory.

 In the 3^rd against Murray Bridge it was a tough encounter with Charlie Bullen dominating before an ankle injury and a split head forced him to retire from the game. The key to the game was the team work and consistent effort that caused problem for the Bridge outfit. Austin Galli and Jimmy Wallis were relentless with their efforts in defence creating many turnovers from their pressure on the ball. Magic win in an upset 43 - 40

Game 4 against a fairly classy Riverland team resulted in a 40 to 61 lose for Magic. Riverland shot the ball exceptional well and our boys had no answers despite running out the game to the end.

The semi Final was against Mt Gambier who was just too good for a very tired Magic team. The Mt flew out of the blocks and had our boys in trouble from the outset and the Magic boys had to work extremely hard to get their 26 points with Mt Gambier scoring 87. Despite the loss, our boys should be proud of what they achieved as they finished in the top four for SA Country.

14 Girls div 1 girls had an outstanding weekend finishing in the top four teams in SA Country. The team which has been together for 6 months really played as a team and with all players contributing all weekend the town team was finished off in good fashion. The game was against Yourke Valley where Keely Venn was on fire scoring freely and this was backed up by Maddie Turner and Emily Winter playing great pressure basketball. Magic won 34/15

 

The 2^nd game against Great Southern who claimed the title at the end of the weekend were to strong Magic in this game and won 55/25. Izzy Turner was the only Magic girl to get to double figures on the scoreboard despite the team getting opportunities.  

The 3^rd game Lauren Fensom, Alana Craig and Sophie Ferguson were strong in defence against a determined Pt. Augusta.   Our girls were able to kept their noses in front for most of the game but found themselves down by 3 points with 4 minutes to play. It was at this point the game changed and with some great defence from Issy Turner, Emily Winter and Keely Venn, Magic caused many turnovers to win 59/45. 

The 4^th game saw Magic get off to a slow start missing many shots in the first term which allowed Barossa Valley to stay in the contest but Keely Venn worked extremely hard to keep Magic in the game and when all players picked up the pressure and intensity, Magic surged away to win convincingly. Coupled with solid team defence, pressure on the ball and strong boxing out under the basket, Alana Craig, Emily Winter, Madi Turner and Caitlyn Shanks scored some timely shots. Magic won 44/26 

In the Semi Final against Whyalla Magic girls were fantastic and their effort was unquestionable. To start it was low scoring and really tight defensively and at the end of the 1^st Magic was down by 3points. The second quarter seen the scores locked at 20 each at the break. Magic got out to a 4 lead going into the last and unfortunately went down by 1 point in a well fought contest. Magic played excellent defence during this game and really had Whyalla struggling to score and in the end it was Whyalla’s foul shooting that won the game. Final score Whyalla 41/40 

Under 18 girls:  The under 18 woman had a successful country champs finishing in the top four overall in division 1. The weekend was always going to be a challenge for the players with the extreme heat and playing in the same pool as Mt Gambier & Murray Bridge. It was also the farewell tournament for Alana Fensom and Megan Allan from the Town Team program. Both players have finished the season well and showed great leadership to a talented young team.

The tournament started well with a competitive game against Mt Gambier. The game was evenly poised going into half time with Magic turning an 8 point deficit at quarter time into a lead midway through the second. The third quarter saw the Mount score some easy points from turnovers, from there the players struggled to get back into the game losing 30 to 54. Sally Houlihan top scored with 7 points and Alana Fenson 6 points.  

In game 2 against eventual tournament winners Murray Bridge, the Magic girls got off to a flying start scoring 20 points in the first quarter. Murray Bridge then got themselves back into the game with some strong defense. The last quarter went goal for goal until a costly turnover with 14 seconds left on the clock saw a possible scoring opportunity turn into an easy two points to Murray Bridge. The final score seeing the Magic lose 42 to 44 with Sarah Allan top score with 21 points and Alex Walker 7 points.  

Game 3 against Great Southern saw Megan Allan & Alex Walker dominate the baskets with Megan scoring 14 and Alex 12 points. After an even first half Magic pulled away in the second to win 46 to 37. The cross over final was played against a well drilled and physical opponent in Mildura who made it difficult for the Magic girls to score in the first half. The players lifted in the second half but were still 9 points behind at three quarter time. Lucy Walker led the way scoring 7 last quarter points and inspired the team to record a great win 27 to 25. Sarah Allan top scored with 15 points and Lucy Walker 7  

In the semi- final Magic played some attacking basketball breaking the Mt Gambier’s defense on many occasions and going to the line for multiply free throws. However they failed to create any scoreboard pressure only converting 9 from 21 free throws. The Magic lost 27 to 40 with Sarah Allan scoring 11 points and Erin Watson 7.

 Millicent had 2 other teams that competed over the weekend in lower divisions and they both performed very well. The division 3 under 14 girls and our division 4 under 14 boys both played 5 games each winning 2 and losing 3 but they were both more that competitive in all games having very close games and no major blowout losses. The majority of players in these 2 teams are all able to play under 14’s next year which will give Magic a great base to work from in 2013 /2014.    

This weekend our under 12 and 16 head off to Adelaide to compete in their championship and Magic have 6 teams. We have under 12 girls div 3, under 12 boys div1 / 2 and a div 4 team, under 16 girls div 1 / 2 and div 4 team.