Our U16 Girls came agonisingly close to grabbing a gold medal but led a solid core of SA teams in the Next Gen Tournament in Perth this month. Pictures by Basketball South Australia
3-Minute Read
Girls
South Australia Metro
Tournament Result: 2nd (Pool A 6-0 (finished 1st) lost to NSW Metro in Gold medal playoff)
Highlights: The Bearcats Coco Hodges was one of the standout players for the week averaging 12.7 points per game with a defeat of Vic Metro 65-64 with Norwood Flames’s Polly Turner scoring 14 points and 4 steals and Grace Taylor with a couple of clutch free-throws rallying the late comeback. The Girls also defeated Queensland South 72-70 with Eagles Aspen Crase dropping a couple of crucial free throws at the death. Hodges dropped another 19 points and Eagles Zahlia Niemann had 13 points and 6 rebounds. Winning all their pool games they won their semi-final 82-57 over Vic Country with the Rockets Lucy Wootton collecting 19 points and 6 rebounds and Niemann a double double of 14 points and 13 rebounds. They ended up losing the final to NSW Metro 61-89 with Crase 14 points and 9 rebounds.
Surprise Packet: The Eagles Niemann averaged 10.6 points over the last five games with the ACT game seeing her jump a level by 5.8 rebounds per game.
South Australia Country
Tournament Result: 6th (Pool B 3-2 (finished 3rd) lost to Queensland South in 5th place playoff)
Highlights: The Bearcats Sienna Lehmann starred the whole tournament with an average of 16.5 points per game (7th overall) 5.6 Assists (2nd) and shot 49.1 field goal percentage. Krystal Thompson was also a standout with 12.4 points and 5.6 rebounds. Country started well against Tasmania 53-49 with Lehmann dropping 22 points and 5 steals, and the Mavs Penzy Hocking 10 points. They then knocked off WA Metro 90-56 with Lehmann grabbing 17 pts and 6 assists and the Mavs Roxanna Tyler 12 points. The other pool win came over QLD North 63-54 with Mavs Ella Aldridge having a huge one with 17 points (4-6 triples). When it came to finals, they lost their playoff to Vic Metro 38-60 but then gave themselves a chance to playoff for fifth with a 77-26 win over WA Country with 5 SA players reaching double figures. The fifth place playoff was competitive with a 79-85 win to QLD South with Thompson having a tournament best 27 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds.
Surprise Packet: Eastern Mavericks and Millicent Magic’s Edie Easterby stepped up to help Lehmann and Thompson on the rebounds grabbing over 7 plus rebounds 4 times and at least one offensive rebound each match, she also added an average of 5 points per game.
Boys
South Australia Metro
Tournament Result: 4th (Pool B 4-1 (finished 1st), lost to WA Metro in bronze medal playoff)
Highlights: Eagles James Mackenzie was the standout with 16.4 points (7th overall), 2.3 steals (3rd) and Flame Oscar Sabine a staggering 10 rebounds per game (2nd). SA Metro were strong this championships showing their intent during the pool games with a 71-70 thrilling win over Vic Country led by Mackenzie with 19 points and 5 steals and Lions Deng Manyang with 15 points and 8 rebounds. Metro then backed it up against NSW Metro 94-74 with Mackenzie burying a whopping 37 points and 8 steals, 6 rebounds, Sabine a double double of 17 points and 15 rebounds and Eagles Sam Hughes with 21 points. Metro played Country to progress to the next stage as Metro won 80-45 with the semi-final against Vic Metro not quite going the way they hoped 61-91. The playoff for the bronze happened against WA Metro with the yellow of the west getting up 59-91.
Surprise Packet: South Adelaide Panther Koby Moir hit the scoreboard early in the tournament with scores of 13 and 10 in his first three games, then dropped 18 in the SA showdown and looked a threat from outside with some light up games to help guide SA almost to the very end.
South Australia Country
Tournament Result: 8th (Pool A 3-3 (finished 4th) – lost to Tasmania in 7th place playoff)
Highlights: The Central District Lions Hudson Linder was the best for SA Country averaging 15.4 points (8th overall), 6.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists while Aidan Schubert finished in the top ten in 6th for rebounding with 8.2. Country had some solid wins during the pool stages over NT 112-60, NSW Country 90-86 and ACT 84-59. They drew a tough run across the finals going down to SA Metro as mentioned earlier then played off against NSW Metro (111-77) and then finished with a tight tussle against Tasmania 81-89 where Linder and Schubert finished their tournaments strong with 19 and 14 points each respectively to help their team finish 8th overall.
Surprise Packet: Rockets Cody Corbett really stepped up in a couple of games at the charity stripe with a combined 16 of 25 providing the supplementary scoring Country needed inside. He only had one game the whole tournament where he scored 5 or less so was always hitting the scoreboard at vital times. He showed these qualities at a state championships I’d called recently and you can see the translation he’s made to the national team level.
For all these young athletes it is a privilege and a pleasure to represent your state no matter how they individually went, congratulations to all U16 Metro and Country Boys and Girls for representing our state against some quality national athletes…
Lets hope we get to see this talent at the NBL1 Central level in the distant future…
We are back to doing recaps for the NBL, Catch all the NBL1 Central action this weekend on the NBL1 website, app and game of the week on Kayo and Kayo Freebies.
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