Surf Coast athletes reach new heights at basketball tournament

REPRESENTATIVES of the Surf Coast Basketball Association (SBA) participated last week in the prestigious Australian Country Junior Basketball Cup (ACJBC), a milestone which saw the region’s first female athlete selected to compete in the tournament.

Now in its 37th year, the competition is held annually in Albury, New South Wales, over five days, and brings together more than 600 junior basketballers from regional areas across Australia and New Zealand.

The event is part of the high-performance pathway for Basketball Victoria, with athletes required to participate in a trial to be considered for selection.

Surf Coast Charger Sienna Shaw, 12, competed through the ACJBC in the U14 Girls Vic Goldminers team, which remained undefeated through all six of their games during pool-play.

But, on the fourth day of competition, the Goldminers went down by six points to Victoria’s other country team, the U14 Girls Vic Bushrangers, in their semi-final showdown.

The Bushrangers ultimately went on to defeat the NSW Waratahs in the grand final, while the U14 Goldminers rallied, winning their third-place play-off against Tasmanian team the Tas Devils.

Sienna contributed heavily to the Goldminers’ success throughout the competition, scoring 96 points across the week for her team and earning a spot among the U14 tournament’s top five point scorers.

Fellow Surf Coast Charger Lincoln de Lange was also selected to represent the SBA in the tournament.

He competed in the U14 Vic Boys Goldminers team, which dropped just one game during pool-play to New Zealand Weka, the very team that went on to beat them by just two points in the grand final showdown.

The final saw Lincoln score six points for his team.

Chris Clark, SBA director of coaching for the girls program, said the selection of both players was a great milestone for the club, with both its girls’ and boys’ programs going from strength-to-strength and showing no signs of slowing down.

“It’s just nice to be able to have some athletes who are taking that next step into the high-performance pathway,” he said.

“This year, the boys’ program has had one of our long-time coaches Greg Smith step in…and that’s been really, really good at being able to attract and retain athletes, like Lincoln.

“Our program has not only increased in the number of teams that we’re entering into the Victorian Junior Basketball League, but the performance of those.”

The club’s girls’ program has also enjoyed significant success, opening new doors for these young athletes to play at the highest possible level.

“We had our first U18 girls’ team that made the top level of the Victorian Junior Basketball League and they’ll go close again this year…and that’s the first time that we’ve had that,” Clark said.

“The U14 girls look like they’re going to qualify really high as well and our U16 girls last year finished in the second division.”

Clark also attended last week’s ACJBC as a coach and led the U16 Girls Vic Bushrangers team to a win in their third-place play-off against the U16 Girls Vic Goldminers, in a close game that saw the sides separated by just one point.

Surf Coast referee Thomas Selig was also selected for the tournament and refereed the gold medal match for the U14 boys, which Clark said was itself “a wonderful achievement” and an enormous boost for the club’s referee program.