Geraldton gain more all-stars but fall just short of basketball championships

Geraldton picked up plenty of wins and found new all-stars but fell short of the titles in the latest Basketball WA Country Championships fixtures. The under-15 boys and girls and the under-16 girls were in action last weekend at the Bendat Basketball Centre hoping to claim Geraldton’s first title. The under-15 boys had a big start to their tournament in a 78-20 smashing of the Bunbury Bears and easily accounting for Harvey Heat 39-27. Their first real test came against Australind who were undefeated and though they mounted a second-half comeback after trailing by four, the Buccs fell just short 39-36. They bounced back to post the highest score of the tournament, putting 107 points past Bunbury, but in a preview of the grand final they again came up short to Australind by one point. Though their previous encounters were tight, Australind had too much class in the final, winning 60-33 as Buccs finished runners-up. However there were individual successes as Riley Fong finished with a division-best 106 points and was named all-star, along with Max De San Miguel who had 82 points and the most threes for the tournament. The under-15 girls had a very similar tournament to the boys, dominating their group matches except for an eight-point loss to Australind. Like the boys, they came up short in the final, despite 10 points from Stateside’s Kealee Poland, 34-24. Poland finished with the second most points with 73 and was named all-star, along with teammate Sahba Hortsman. The under-16 girls had an up-and-down tournament and finished in fifth place. They won their opener against Harvey by four points before falling one point short against Albany 16-15. A big win over Kalgoorlie followed before a tight loss to Bunbury scuppered their hopes of a top-two finish and grand final chance. They faced Busselton, who they beat in the group stages, in the 4th-5th placed play-off but couldn’t recover from a five-point deficit at the half to lose 21-25. Trades’ Holly Baynes was named all-star, finishing with 45 points, which was the fourth best for the division.