Geraldton's Harry Evans and Bob Griechen help lead WA to sixth-place finish at u20 basketball nationals

Local basketball stars and Buccs players Harry Evans and Bob Griechen helped lead WA to a sixth-place finish in the under-20 national championships last week in Victoria.

After starting their campaign with three straight losses WA picked up a handy 105-57 win over the Northern Territory on Thursday, February 1.

The win put WA in fourth in their pool, which was enough to get them a finals berth where they would face the sides from the other pool games.

In the quarterfinal on Friday, WA went down against Queensland 113-85. Griechen dropped 20 points in the loss and had seven rebounds, two assists and two steals, while Evans had three points, one rebound and three assists.

With the WA side out of the running to repeat last year’s efforts and go back-to-back with championship wins, they turned their form around and picked up a 103-85 win against Victoria Navy in the consolation game on Saturday.

Griechen had another high-scoring game with 21 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals, while Evans had five points, one rebound and three assists.

WA faced New South Wales for fifth place overall in the final match but couldn’t hold on, falling 98-76 to finish the tournament in sixth.

While WA didn’t have the best performance at the championships, both the Geraldton players starred for their side and made an impact at the tournament.

Griechen tied 10th overall in scoring, averaging 15.71 points per game, as well as finishing third in free throws made with 32.

Evans ended the tournament as a high-volume ball handler, finishing 11th overall in assists with an average of 3.2 per game.

Now the boys return to Geraldton with their teams — Evans with the Pumas and Griechen at the Hawks — both looking towards finals starting next week.