An amazing season for our Under 14 Boys Rep team ended disappointingly with a tough loss in their division’s Grand Final. Despite leading for much of the first half, the boys just simply couldn’t make their shots throughout the match. This left a window open for their Vales opponents to jump through, and in the second half jump through they did.
Neither team was dominant in the first half, with both teams struggling to score, but with seconds left, our boys lead 17-13 before the Vales hit a buzzer beater at the half to bring the margin back to 17-16.
For the BMBA, Zach Chester was strong with 11 points while Bill Pham had 4 points. The boys’ defence was keeping them in the lead and in front in the game, but if that failed, then that lead would be at risk, which is sadly exactly what happened.
In the second half, the Vales found their range and hit five three-pointers in the second half to not only gain the lead but break the low-scoring game open. A key part of the BMBA strategy was to get the Vales’ opposing centre in foul trouble, as he was the only tall in their team. We didn’t start doing that until the second half when the boys finally followed pre-game instructions and drew four fouls on him and nearly had him fouled out. Had we done that in the first half, our boys would’ve won. Instead, they learned a tough lesson.
None of this should take away from the amazing efforts of the boys who won four games in a row, upset the top team in the semi-finals and stormed into the Grand Final. The occasion appeared to affect the boys who didn’t play with the same rythym as their past four matches. The boys, however, can now look forward with confidence toward their next season as they now know how capable they are.
Zach Chester had a strong Grand Final with 20 points, a milestone Zach has reached several times this season; Bill Pham had 4 points, while Issac McDonald and George Zhang had 2 points each.
The boys can now review both their season and Grand Final efforts and look forward to improving on those efforts in the Summer season, which commences when we return for our Term 4 programs.
Congratulations, boys, on a wonderful season.
