Gallant effort by Under 12 Boys tops off a great weekend

Our Under 12 boys completed their tournament weekend in outstanding fashion by making their competition Grand Final for the second time. Sadly after a great effort the boys went down in a nail biter, losing 27-20. Our boys were outstanding all weekend, but particularly in this match, where they were taking on a rep team with ten players and a bunch of top age players. On the other hand we only had the six boys and four of those were bottom age players.

Despite this, our boys played to instruction and implemented different type of defences to nullify the opposition’s best players and cause confusion amongst their team. Our boys in the first half were just brilliant in putting this into practice. Zach Chester and Lachlan Fuller kept the Sharks  best player and the comps leading scorer to a measly 4 points in the first half.

Our boys were simply ferocious in their endeavour in this half and should have been a lot further in front had it not been for missed lay-ups and fast break opportunities. Nevertheless we lead 10-9 in a very tight and low scoring affair.

The second half simply went basketball for basket and with five minutes to go the scores were tied 20-20 with both teams battling for ascendancy. Sadly with just on two minutes to go Southern Peninsula broke the deadlock with a 3 point play and finally the legs of our six young warriors started to give out before going down 27-20.

It was an awesome effort and an awesome game that had parents, spectators and coach on the edge of their seats throughout. For the BMBA Lachy Speers lead our scoring once more with 8 points, while Zach Chester, Lachlan Fuller and Jordan Tiet all had 4 points.

While it was an outstanding tournament from all the boys in this game Zach Chester deserved special praise. He played a pivotal part in our semi-final win and in this game reduced the impact of their best player, while pulling in numerous rebounds in his best game for the BMBA to this point.

Lachy Speers had another outstanding tournament leading the team in scoring and showing some great basketball nous while improving on his passing awareness, Lachlan Fuller in first games with the BMBA improved with every game and demonstrating what a valuable addition he will be in our BMBA program, Jordan Tiet was once again our energizer battery, throwing himself into everything in every match and demonstrated an increasing skill capacity with his ball-handling, Oscar Li demonstrated how good a player he can be with an increased effot on concentration and engagement and finally Ethan Xie demonstrated he will just get better and better now that he has joined the program.

While winning is great and it would have been brilliant to win this Grand Final, tournaments are about bonding and learning new skills and trying new team structures, we achieved all of that with the boys running a 5-out motion for the first time on offence, while being introduced to a 1-2-1-1 diamond press and a 2-2-1 house press for the first time. To achieve all of that with a predominately bottom aged squad is outstanding and will help the boys as they return to their regular season games.

That in itself is a win no matter the result of this game. There will be more tournaments and more Grand Final opportunities and it won’t be long before we crack it for a Grand Final win. Until then the boys can keep engaging and learning, and most importantly bonding as can the parents who all were fantastic support over this hot long weekend.

Below is a photo that I love, as it has all the boys and their parents in it, without whom these tournaments just wont work. Also below is match video of the Grand Final for everybody to enjoy.

Well done boys you should be very proud of your efforts over the weekend, I know I am.