WA country sides finish strong at under-16 national basketball carnival

Geraldton basketball stars were in action over the weekend as they played their part in the Country WA sides at the under-16 national championships..

Holly Baynes, Kealee Poland and Max De San Miguel took part in the championships for the girls and boys’ squads while head of the Mid West Academy of Sports Darren Winterbine took the reigns over the boys’ team.

The week-long competition began with pool games on Sunday, July 2 with finals being played on the weekend of July 7-8.

In Pool A the girls have failed to notch a win in their opening three games, going down 30-95 to Victoria Metro in their opening clash before a 58-81 defeat to NSW Country and a 99-39 loss to SA Metro.

Losses to Tasmania 74-41 and Queensland South 75-52 as they finished bottom of the Pool without a win.

But the girls finished a strong strong win against Northern Territory 70-41 followed by a thrilling win against SA country 61-58 win which saw Baynes produce her best performance with seven points and six rebounds.

They lost in their final match against NSW Country 70-39 to finish with a 2-6 record.

Baynes averaged 2.5 points and 3.6 rebounds per game while having the best percentage 46.67 from the free throw line.

Poland had 3.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.4 steals a game in a strong showing of her defensive game.

The boys tournament followed a similar pattern to the girl’s as they lost their five group games before finishing strong in the final classification games.

In a group of Metro opponents WA fought hard but was outclassed but went out on a high winning their final three classification games.

They smashed Northern Territory 106-58 before squeezing past Queensland South in a thriller 97-94 setting up a final-day clash with Tasmania who they lost to in the group stage.

But they gained revenge with an 84-76 win to finish on a high.

De San Miguel finished as the team’s third best scorer averaging 9.1 points a game going along with 3.12 rebounds from his eight games.