BMBA Under 14 Boys going strong in worlds largest junior tournament

Our Under 14 Boys are back playing tournament basketball once more after a twelve month break.

 

In 2024, our Under 12 Boys played three tournaments, made three grand finals, and sadly lost all three. It was an outstanding effort. In those tournament our boys played in the domestic division of those tournaments. This time, our boys are playing in a rep division against established Rep teams. I’m please to say the boys are not just holdng their own in their first two days, they could have won all three of their games. More importantly, they are improving with every match and gaining confidence through that effort. So much so, they stormed over the top of an Altona team in their last match win by 18 points. The boys have been training togther over the holidays, learning new offensive and defensive concepts, and thier main goal was to attempt these throughout the tournament and look to improve with every game. So far, the boys have done exactly that.

 

Thankfully, the boys also scored a great outcome through the tournament, fixturing, having all their games scheduled at their home stadium at the air-conditioned Stonnington Sports Centre. Considering the heat so far this weekend, that has been a great outcome.

 

Match reports from the boys’ games so far are below.

 BMBA Templar Warriors 19 Drew with Waverley 19

The boys led this game the entire way, and a few poor decisions in the last minute of play cost the boys a first up win. The boys’ effort on defence was terrific as they put their new run and trap defence into play for the first time, while we didn’t run it as well as we could, the effort was certainly there and we totally smothered our Waverley opposition. On the offensive end, though, we just couldn’t convert the scoring opportunities we were creating. I put this down to nerves. It was disappointing because the boys deserved a win, but it was also encouraging considering the effort. Not boxing out and rebounding was an area for us to focus on for the coming games.

 

Bill Pham had an outstanding first half with 11 points, including two big threes in a row. Kayden Ng was also strong with 6 points.

BMBA Templar Warriors 24 Lost to Westgate 28

Once again, the boys led this match for much of the game. A much taller and larger team than Waverley, this team provided different issue the team. After a slow 2 -8 start, the boys not only recovered, they gained the acendency dominating their larger opponents to lead 18-14 7 minutes into the second half. Our new run-and-trap defence was forcing Westgate into constant turnovers, but yet again, we couldn’t quite convert our chances.

 

In this match, the boys for the first time also started running their motion offence with screens and for the first time we saw some real teamwork from the boys to create great scoring opportunties. Sadly, our boxing and rebounding continued to be an issue, and Westaget’s two bigs scored 20 of their 28 points. Despite this, the boys demonstrated that if we meet this team again, our best basketball will be good enough.

 

Kayden Ng had a much improved game with 8 points, Lucas Edmond, in his first games with the BMBA and in his first tournament, contributed strongly with 6 points, and George Zangh had 4 points.

 

BMBA Templar Warriors 44 defeated Altona 26

The boys struggled to get into the flow of the game in the first half and trailed at halftime 12 to 16. Despite this, I was confident that if the boys put into place what they had been training on over the holidays, they would win coming home, and that is how it worked out. Not only did they come back, they literally stormed over their opponents with one of their best half of basketballs outscoring Altona 32-10 in the second half. The boys’ pressure defence improved again and smothered their opposition, causing constant turnovers. We also continued to improve our offensive sets with better movement without the ball, screens, and cuts. It was pleasure to watch and hopefully a result that gives the boys great confidence going into their final two matches.

 

Bill Pham had an outstanding game with 16 points, which included two big threes. Tehan De Mel had a breakout game with ten points and some outstanding defence, while Lucas Edmonds continued to improve and build confidence with eight points. Kayden Ng with 6 points and George Zhang, 4 points also performed strongly.

 

All the boys are performing strongly and providing strong efforts each game, and this result should give them the confidence to match those efforts.

BMBA Templar Warriors 19 lost to Nunawading 42

In our fourth game we took on the undefeated Nunawading team who had taken all before them. Our boys had a decent first half and held Nunawading to their lowest half scored but missed shots and turnovers meant the boys couldn’t capitalise on the opportunties they were creating.

 

Due to Nunawadings full court pressure our boys let the game blow out a little in the second half. With three minutes to go our boys were on Track to keep this high scoring team to their lowest score in the tournament. Sadly we dropped our effort and  let them score 12 points in that three minutes, which was a dissapointing way to end a game the boys had worked so hard in.

 

Tehan De Mel and Bill Pham both scored 4 points, while George Zhang and Lucas Edmonds both scored 3 points each.

BMBA Templar Warriors 32 lost to Ringwood 42

In our final game we were missing gun point guard Bill Pham . Our boys had a decent first half and helddue to ankle soreness, which was a pity as the boys needed to win this game to make finals.

 

The boys competed hard throughout but never could quite get into their rythym. When they did we looked very good, we just didn’t play that for long enough periods, which outside our Altona game was a consistent issue throughout the tournament.

 

Despite challenging for the lead several times, the boys just could get their noses in front and went down by ten points.

 

Tehan De Mel had 12 points to continued his improved form, while George Zhang had his best game of the weekend with ten points. Overall though I beleive the boys were tired by this game having not expereinced a tournament before and we couldn’t quite get our energy levels up and minds in the game that we had done in previous games. Sadly this loss meant that despite being equal on points with the fourth placed team we missed out on finals by just 3 pecentage points.

 

Tournament Summary

While it was disappointing to miss out on finals by a percentage, I was very happy with the effort the boys gave in every match. We could have easily won three of the games we drew or lost in, so we are desperately unlucky not to make the finals. Having said that, we went into the tournament to try out new things, play hard in each game and tests ourselves out against established rep players and teams, and with all those boxes we ticked them strongly.

 

Considering that for most of the boys this was their first tournament, and for all the boys this was their first tournament against rep teams, we acquitted ourselves extremely well. We also now have a strong base to build on from the work that we did over the holidays in preparation for this tournament. We now have new structures on both offence and defence to continue to work on and master, having introduced them to the boys over the holiday break. We will be doing that with each week moving forward, and improving with every week.

 

Just as importantly, the boys got to experience Rep level refereeing, where they will be called a lot more for things such as travels, carries, hand-checking and double dribbles.  The boys also now have had their first taste of rep basketball, and hopefully they now realise the pace you need to play with and how organised we need to be against these teams.

 

They also should have developed a very good idea of the skill areas they need to develop and keep working on. Little things like being able to box-out and rebound on defence, and being able to drive and finish a lay-up on their non-preferred hand. Little things add up to big things and will go a long way to turn those close losses into decent wins.

 

So if we can get something out of all of the above, the weekend has been very productive. All the boys should have learned some valuable lessons this weekend; they all had their ups and downs, but they all worked hard through each game, and they should be much better prepared for their next opportunity to take on rep teams.