Geraldton mark strong start to basketball country championships with u12s and u13s reaching the semis

The first week of the Basketball WA Country Championships kicked off on the weekend and Geraldton had three teams vying for the cup.

While none of them managed to finish the job, the Buccaneers squads saw success competing against some of the top teams in the State at the Bendat Basketball Centre.

The youngest group that Geraldton sent up in the first week was the under-12 boys, coached by Elliott Bennett and Kody De San Miguel.

They started their campaign with back-to-back losses on Friday, going down in their first game 44-22 against Mandurah and then losing 17-10 against Albany.

Saturday saw the team turn it around. While they went down 13-3 in the first half against Karratha, a massive second half saw Geraldton grab their first win in the 18-16 match.

Their game against Bunbury had a similar outcome, with a second half effort helping Geraldton go up 23-20 for the win, with Reece Partington (8) leading the match in scoring.

A draw against Busselton saw the under-12’s finish with a 2-2-1 record and finish in fourth place, sending them to the semi-finals.

A rematch against the Bunbury Bears went in the South teams favour, as an 11-11 first half from both sides kept it competitive but Bunbury outpaced Geraldton to win 37-21, ending the Buccaneers title chances.

The under-13s squad, headed by Jaimie McMahon and Clint Yeates as the coaches, finished with similar results in their run on the weekend.

Geraldton split their results on Friday, picking up a win against Australind and falling to Karratha to go 1-1.

They started their Saturday matches with a 27-21 win over Kalgoorlie, but it was followed by two straight losses against Busselton and Bunbury.

A 34-22 win in their final pool game against Albany was enough to send the u13’s into the semi-finals, where they would have to face Bunbury once again, but couldn’t get the win a second time around, finishing fourth overall.

The under-15s, coached by Joseph Iaria and Jake Baker, got a close 19-16 win against Harvey in their first match with Jaxon Papertalk dropping 12 points, but they didn’t find much success after and finished with a 1-4 record.

Now Geraldton look to this weekend, with the u12, u13 and u14 girls competing at Bendat Basketball Centre in the second week of the country championships.