Mount Gambier Lakers had nine teams compete in the 2020 Portland Junior Basketball Tournament, a great opportunity for the sides to hit the court and get back into their hoops after a lengthy break over Christmas.

While it was a mixed bag of scoreboard results for the Lakers sides, they all have different goals and many were achieved over the weekend. The chance to get back on court as well as spend time

The U16 boys division two side came away from the tournament as champions going undefeated for the tournament, Coach Matt Ray was ecstatic with the result, ‘Defence was the key to the teams success, in the grand final I put the ‘right glove’ Jimmy Tonon and the ‘left glove’ Cayde Watson onto the Port Fairy’s strongest player there effort went a long way to the teams success.’

The U14 Boys sides competed hard, the U14 boys Gold side finished the weekend with 2 wins and 2 loses including finishing with a 1-point thrilling victory over Port Fairy.

U14 Boys Division three side were happy to be back on court and enjoy some tough contests and close games, their best performance came against Port Fairy, the boys were really clicking went on to win 44 to 23.

No one was happier to be back on court than the U12 Girls Division two team! Organising their own team huddles and providing the most ferocious team ‘Lakers on 3’ calls after team talks, they even took the time to chill out and take a seat on the court with the ‘coolest’ referee going around while the scorers got sorted before the start of one of their games. The girls managed to score in double figures each game and had a great time doing it.

The U12 Girls Division 1 side started with a great game against Hamilton coming away with a narrow win, team Coach Hannah Nulty was happy with the weekend ‘The girls are starting to gel, we got the chance to welcome Jenna Baron into the team and she slotted in perfectly. It is exciting to see their improvement and see them grow from the first tournament back in September.’

It was defensive effort for the U16 Division two girls side who were keeping the scores of their opponents down but weren’t able to convert consistently on offense, the highlight was a thrilling game against Millicent going down by one point 20 to 21.

The U14 division 2 girls had a very busy saturday with four games, managing to go 2 and 2 for the day, including a 2 point nail biting victory over Casterton. The girls improving in their offensive spacing were able to score more consistently when they had the ball. The girls fell short on the scoreboard in their final game against Warrnambool but gained a lot from the weekend.

A large focus at training has been on defence for the U12 boys division one and division two sides, the division 1 managed to produce a superb defensive performance in their last game against Millicent however put so much energy into their defence could not come up with enough points to come away with the win. The Div two side had a very competitive tournament with the highlight being a convincing win over Koroit 33 – 14.

The Mount Gambier Lakers sides will hit the training track in preparation for the Naracoorte Junior Basketball Tournament late February.