BMBA Under 14 Boys make Elite Tournament's semi-finals
Our BMBA Under 14 Boys Rep squad entered in the Elite South East Junior Basketball Tournament (SEJBT) over the Labour Day long Weekend. To say they acquitted themselves strongly is an understatement.
Over the Australia Day weekend, the boys also played in the Eltham/Dandenong tournament where they were desperately unlucky not win four of their games. They did however score their first win over another Rep squad with a strong 20+ win over a Rep Altona squad. That tournament gave them the belief they could win in these tournament.
At the SEJBT, winning is exactly what they did, winning all their four lead-up gamesto go into the tournament semi-finals undefeated. Sadly the wins they enjoyed may have gotten the boys slightly ahead of themselves when they lost a match that they knew in their heart of hearts they shoud’ve won. Despite this their efforts at this tournament can only help to build their confidence for future competitions and tournaments as they take on even stronger teams.
Here’s a summary of their games.
BMBA U14 Boys 42 defeated Meeniyan Wolves 33
The boys started this game strongly and were up 8-0 early which didn’t rflect their dominance as without missed lay-ups they could have easily been up 20 points. As always happens when you don’t take full advantage of a period of strong play you allow your opposition back into the game and that what exactly happened as the Menniyan boys chipped away at our early lead to hit the front by 3 points with six minutes to go in the second half. Our boys had to steady and meet this challenege and pleasingly that’s exactly what they did outscoring their opponents 12-0 in that six minutes for a strong 9 point win to start the tournament. Zac Chester played strongly with 26 points and was ably supported by Lucas Edmonds with 9.
Scorers: – Zac Chester 26 points, Lucas Edmonds 9 points, Jack Jamieson 3 points, Kayden Ng 2 points, George Zhang 2 points.
BMBA U14 Boys 59 defeated Border Sports Academy 24
The boys dominated this match from start to finish, implementing their new pressure defence admirably which smothered their academy opponents from Warrnambool who were coached by Warrnambool legend Bobby Cunningham. Our boys blew this game out in the first fifteeen minutes to lead 19-6 and never let up. Our game improved in all facets with more traps and steas on defence, some great fast break basketball and some real tema orientated offence in their half court game. It was an impressive performance from the the boys, Zac Chester was again strong with 29 points, while George Zhang played to his potential with 11 points and Lucas Edmonds again played a great suppurt role in the guard position with 9 points.
Scorers: – Zac Chester 26 points, George Zhang 11 points Lucas Edmonds 9 points, Kayden Ng 4 points, Elijah Salim 4 points, Tehan De Mel 2 points.
BMBA U14 Boys 43 defeated Wyndham 32
The boys faced a more daunting challenge when they played a rep team from Wyndham Basketball Association, which has just had a bug win and had some significantly taller players than our own. Despite this the boys didn’t miss a beat, staring strongly and leading 20-9 at half time. Our defence again was a highlight with our pressure defence having everybody contributing.
In the second half Wyndham rallied a little but it wasn’t enough to get close and our boys ran our comfortable winners against a stronger opponent by 9 points. The most pleasing thing from this game was the scoring spread with every playing hitting a basket which is always a great indicator of teamwork. Another pleasing aspect was Bill Pham’s strong return from a significant stint on the sidelines due to injury.
Scorers: – Zac Chester 16 points, Bill Pham 7 Points, George Zhang 4 points, Lucas Edmonds 4 points, Tehan De Mel 4 points, Jack Jamieson 4 points, Kayden Ng 2 points, Elijah Salim 2 points.
BMBA U14 Boys 72 defeated Joyboys 16
In the last of lead games to finals and with their semi-final spot already locked in, our boys face a non-rep team in their last match who had already suffered some large losses. Despite this Our boys didn’t let up charging our to a 46-10 lead at half time. Our boys had offered our opponents the opportunity to have us get off our pressure defence as it was obvious they were struggling against this. They rejected this offer intially, but at half time requested us to ease our pressure defence, which we did in act of sportsmanship.
That didn’t stop the boys too much as they continued storngly in the second half with great half court defence, some great transition basketball and some real team work in their half court defence. Once again we had a great scoring spread with multiple boys scoring double figures in points.
Scorers: – Lucas Edmonds 19 points, Zac Chester 18 points, George Zhang 14 points, Tehan De Mel 12 points, Jack Jamieson 4 points, Kayden Ng 4 points, Bill Pham 2 Points.
Semi-Final BMBA U14 Boys 39 lost to MLBC 47
Sadly in our last match, a semi-final, our boys allowed the lead-up games to get them ahead of themselves, which can happen in junior sports. Going onto the semi-final the results showed the boys were raging favourites, but this may have worked against us, as we didn’t bring the pressure defence we had used in our previosu four matches which ensure a lot of frsutration and closer match than what should have evolved. Sadly when you give your opposition that sort of chance, more times than not they usually grab it and that’s exactly what our MLBC opponents did.
The match was tight throughout and the team that got the break was in all likelihood the team that was going to win. Sadly, that wasn’t us. MLBC got the break half way through the second half getting out to an 11 point lead with three minutes to go. Our boys kept fightin and got the margin down to four points, but just couldn’t get their noses in front. It was a devastating loss for the boys who knew, they like so many teams before them, lost a game they shoud’ve won. Hopefully like most of those teams, our boys learn from this to go onto even bigger things.
Scorers: – Zac Chester 12 points, Tehan De Mel 11 points, George Zhang 5 points, Jack Jamieson 4 points, Kayden Ng 4 points, Lucas Edmonds 3 points.
Tournament Photo's
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