Team talk: Coach Lisa Baker briefs her under-16 girls team at training ahead of their trip to Bendigo for the Junior Country Championships. Photos: Matthew Kappos
Photo by
Matthew Kappos
Three Echuca Pirates teams will travel to Bendigo this weekend to battle some of the best junior basketballers in the state at the Junior Country Championships.
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The under-16 girls, under-16 boys and under-18 girls have all qualified for the division one and two finals, which will be held on February 17-18.
The teams have been training hard and putting in work at lead-up tournaments to give themselves the best chance of success, including in Bendigo over the Australia Day weekend.
Fast break: Will Hatfield looks to attack in transition.
Photo by
Matthew Kappos
“We didn’t get away with a win, unfortunately, but we proved to ourselves that we can compete against some of those teams that are ranked 10th-15th in the state,” Reagan Smith, coach of the under-16 boys side, said.
“So to know that we’re up there against that calibre of teams is a good start heading into (the country) champs.”
Floor general: Mekenzie Wood surveys the floor.
Photo by
Matthew Kappos
Echuca Moama Basketball Association president and under-16 girls team coach, Lisa Baker, says her squad has had a strong preparation as well.
“The girls have been training very solidly and getting together really well,” she said.
“We’ve played a few tournaments now, and we’ve come away with a runner-up (finish) and a grand final win, so we’re up there with the best of them.”
Both coaches indicated that their teams specialised in fast-paced, aggressive basketball due in part to the size of the Pirates compared to the opposition.
“We’re a little group of boys, so we emphasise at training that we are quicker, so we run for the 40 minutes of basketball,” Smith said.
“We try and run through our sets of offence when we can, but at the end of the day, our style of basketball is quick-paced basketball, hitting the ring as quickly as possible.”
The grading tournament will see a group stage, with four teams per group, on Saturday, followed by elimination brackets on Sunday.
The top two from each group will advance to the division one bracket while the bottom two will form the division two bracket.
The under-18 girls will face Geelong, Korumburra and Sale in the group stages, while the under-16 boys will battle Hamilton,Traralgon, and Warragul in their group stage, with coach Smith hopeful of at least one win.
“Realistically we want to strive for high (finish) in division two,” he said.
“I’d be happy if we got out of the grading stages with that one win against Hamilton, but I believe that the boys, if they go out there and play their style, can get a few wins and hopefully end up in division one.”
Form: Addison Orr practices her short-range shooting
Photo by
Matthew Kappos
Meanwhile, coach Baker is looking at Bendigo as the toughest challenge for her under-16 girls side, who will also face Traralgon and Wonthaggi in the group stage.
“We’ve played Bendigo before and we went down to them, they’re a very strong, drilled team,” she said.
“Traralgon, I hope we’ll be very competitive with and we’ve beaten Wonthaggi before by a couple of points.”
Regardless of the results, qualifying for the division one and two playoffs is a testament to the work the Pirates teams have done up to this point, with the participants representing the top 16 teams in the state.
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