Another long weekend, another tournament and another semi-final for our Under 12 Boys.
Playing at the Oakleigh Recreation Centre, which thankfully has a air-conditioning, our boys basketball was just as hot as the temperatures outside recording two wins and very honourable loss in their regular competition matches. This has seen the boys finish second on their section ladder and a place in a semi-final to have a chance at a place in the Grand-Final.
It’s all a bit of Déjà vu for these boys as they also made the semi-finals before reaching their first ever tournament Grand Final in their first ever tournament.
Now they have the chance to do it again in todays semi-final at 3:30pm on Court 5 at the Oakleigh Recreation Centre.
Game summaries are below
Game One: 30-39 LOSS Vs Southern Peninsula Sharks – Lachy Speers 10 pts, Zach Chester 9 pts, Lachlan Fuller 6 pts, Ethan Xie 5 Pts, Oscar Li 2 points
Our boys got jumped early by a very organised and very deep Southern Peninsula squad and after 4 minutes fund themselves 11-2 down and floundering. A few time-outs and a couple of chats and the boys got going. For next five minutes we went basket for basket with the Sharks and started to build some confidence.
For the last seven minutes of the first half, our boys actually held the Sharks scoreless to tie the game 16 each at half time.
In the second half the teams went basket for basket, but then Southern Peninsula started to get on top as our boys efforts to get back into the game started to tell. In the end the Sharks played a lightly better last five minutes to secure a 9 point win. Despite the loss the boys played some great basketball after their slow start, especially considering the standard of the opposition.
Game Two: 58-19 WIN Vs Meeniyan Wolves – Lachy Speers 24 pts, Zach Chester 9 pts, Jordan Tiet 9 Points, Ethan Xie 8 Pts, Lachlan Fuller 4 pts, Oscar Li 4 points
Unlike our first game, they boys started extremely strongly in this game, scoring 20 points before the opposition got their first basket. The boys energy and enthusiasm was terrific and their teamwork on fast breaks was excellent. Our organisation on defence was dramatically better, which created plenty of scoring opportunities. The boys continued strongly all half where the score was 36-6 with the game effectively over.
This allowed us in the second half to try and run our 5-out motion offence in a game circumstances for an entire half. Pleasingly, it went very well and the boys achieved a number of cuts combined with excellent teamwork that lead to further easy baskets. As we experimented with this our defence fell away a little, but we still produced some great instances of defence and some great fast-break offence.
Lachy Speers was outstanding in this match scoring 24 points while making several assist passes to create scoring opportunities for his teammates. Zach Chester played a very strong game with some great defensive efforts and his second consecutive 9 point match. The most pleasing thing of the whole game was how all the boys contributed to the win. Oscar Li played some tremendous defence in his role on our press, while Jordan Tiet was his normal bundle of energy which led to him scoring 9 points, Ethan Xie had 8 points with some very nice finishing while Lachlan Fuller in his first games with the BMBA scored two baskets, brought ball up the court and completed his role on defence very, very well.
The boys teamwork in this game was so good even the opposition coach complimented it, which was a great acknowledgment of the boy’s efforts and greatly appreciated.
Game Three: 35-33 WIN Vs Casey Cavaliers – Lachy Speers 10 pts, Zach Chester 9 pts, Oscar Li 6 points, Ethan Xie 4 Pts, Lachlan Fuller 4 pts, Jordan Tiet 2 Pts,
Morning games are not our strength and and 8:00am game had red flags surrounding it. Once again we got off to a poor start before steading to grab the lead in a competitive first. Unlike our first two games we were making some basic errors on defence which allowed a competitive Casey team to stay in the game.
Every time we pulled ahead, they came back straight away. This makes for a great spectacle for those watching, but doesn’t do much for the nerves of the coach nor the parents watching.
With both teams containing plenty of bottom age players, it was a great standard of play throughout. Our boys led through most of the match and the entirety of the second half and deserved their close win, but hopefully they have learned about playing out an entire match.
Semi-Final Preview: BMBA Templar Warriors Versus Foster Breakers
Game Time: 3:30pm
Venue: Court 5, Oakleigh Recreation Centre, Park Road Oakleigh
In a quirk of tournament competition sometimes you don’t get to play certain opposition. In our section there are six teams, but you only get three games before finals. So there are two teams that each team won’t play unless they make finals. This is the case in this instance as our boys have not yet played their Foster opposition.
Foster, like Meeniyan, is a country town in South Gippsland which has a strong basketball demographic. They have had two wins and one loss, just like our boys. Just like our boys they beat Casey by 2 points, and just like our boys they defeated Menniyan, but by only 10 points as opposed to our boys 39 point win.
If the boys produce their best basketball they should do well and hopefully progress to their second consecutive tournament Grand Final spot. If not, then boys have already succeeded. The team contains four bottom age players and for most games have had only the six players, so their effort has been amazing. The most pleasing thing is how ALL the boys have contributed in their games. All of the boys have enjoyed some great minutes, all the boys have scored throughout their games and all the boys have contributed nicely to our defensive efforts.
Most importantly the boys for the first time have started to run their 5-out motion offense and actually created baskets from it. This is something we have been working on for some time at training, so it has been extremely rewarding to see the boys start to take their first steps in being able to run this offence. Hopefully it can now help them through to a Grand Final.
