Posted on 29 November, 2011

Tournament update: the 12.2 Girls

Coming off a good win on Friday night the girls started the weekend off against Nunawading at 8.am, the winning continued with a good game against Hawthorn, after a four hour break and a long lunch at La Porchetta the girls had a very lacklustre game against Bulleen, I actually think they were asleep.

23 Kilsyth vs 6 Nunawading
12 Kilsyth vs 8 Hawthorn
9 Kilsyth vs 20 Bulleen
10 Kilsyth vs Frankston
18 Kilysth vs 5 Hawthorn        Semi Final
22 Kilsyth vs 18 Bulleen         Grand Final

12.3 Girls

Just a quick rundown on how the girls did at the tournament. Unfortunately their first game against Camberwell was a washout! Due to a leaking roof at the stadium the game was called a draw. They were defeated in the remaining games against Bulleen, Shepparton and Sharks. It was a good experience for the girls and great for them to get a few more games under their belt as a team.

14.2 girls

The 14.2 girls made it through the weekend with 3 wins and one draw that put us into a final with the huge Wodonga 1 girls which we were good enough to get a win in a close game.

The Grand Final was V Blackburn 1’s whom had beaten every one by a comfortable margin. we weren’t good enough to overcome them, they were good and very tall but they didn’t celebrate until after the siren and i think it was relief as we outscored them by 4 points in the last 3 minutes and came home strong, Cobra’s never give up and the winning coach commented on our efforts. i think the margin was 8 points in the end.

16-1 girls

The Peninsula Basketball tournament proved to be an exciting weekend of basketball for the under 16-1 girls team coached by Will van Poppel. Team players; Jessica Smith, Paige Anderson, Alisha Ryan, Jacinta Princi, Hannah Taulien, Holly Millsom, Mikayla Noble, Brooke McGurgan, Haley Moran and Taylah Black all brought enthusiasm and commitment to the games.

Although wet outside the action was red hot inside all the stadiums and Kilsyth had their fair share of the action and excitement, winning two out of three matches on Saturday. The team looked good on the court and was very competitive. The girls showed great skills in pressuring the opposition, stealing and driving the ball. 

The team goal for the weekend was to work on game skills and it was pleasing to see a considerable improvement in their defensive game over the tournament.  Kilsyth played Wodonga, Bulleen, McKinnon and Warrandyte.  They won comfortably against Wodonga and McKinnon, and gave the top team Bulleen a good run. In their last match, Kilsyth were unfortunate to lose to Warrandyte after playing a far superior second half.

Overall the girls team won 2 games and lost 2 games over the weekend. Great improvements in their boxing out, rebounding and court positioning were seen by the coaches as important outcomes achieved through playing in this tournament. Although the team didn’t make finals I am sure that the girls gained valuable experience and more confidence as each girl achieved their own personal goal set during the weekend.

All matches were exciting to watch and both the girls and their parents are to be congratulated on showing fantastic spirit and dedication to the team. A big thanks to Narelle Moran, team manager on her outstanding organization of the team before, during and after the weekend.  Thanks also to Deana Sanelli for all her efforts as assistant coach. The weekend was a success and ended positively with fun team building activities on the beach.

16-3 Girls
This tournament was a positive stepping stone for the girls as they were able to improve on their individual skills as well as their teamwork. We had 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses. The girls were able to keep their heads up after the losses and continue onto the following games. We have a great season ahead of us and this tournament was the first step to improvement among the girls. Well done on a good weekend, looking forward to next year.

Cobra 18/2 Girls – Southern Peninsula Tournament weekend.

Game 1 against Nunawading 3 – a slow start from our girls saw us down 18 to 5 at half time. The girls stepped up their defense in the second half to keep the opposition to adding only one point to their score for a good part of the second half of the game; unfortunately we struggled at our own basket. Nunawading over us by a good margin.

Game 2: against Melbourne Tigers – a reinvigorated team took to the court with plenty of go. A much needed defensive effort combined with some good ball movement had the Tigers on the back foot from the opening tip off. A great passing and scoring effort saw the Cobras home 32 to 11.

Game 3 against Poowong – after a slow start the girls got going and played some good defensive pressure on the Poowong guards and gave them nothing easily. Some good offense helped the girls hold a comfortable lead for the second half.  Cobras winning 31 to 18.

Game 4: 8.00am Sunday morning had a few red eyes visible on the warm up court from a late game the previous night at Rosebud. This game saw the girls up against a much taller and strong Wodonga side. The girls played hard from the start taking it to the opposition defensively. Some great work inside the key combined with good outside shot selection kept the girls within good position. Some missed shots cost us in the last minutes with the girls going down by 6pts – 30 to 24. 

Semi-final : finishing 3rd in our group saw the girls come up against Wodonga again in the semi-final. The girls got away to a great start scoring the first few points before Wodonga started to come back and get a bit of a run going. The girls rallied after some words from Matt and Tim to really put the pressure on their ball carriers forcing a number of turnovers. They kept this pressure up until the final siren but unfortunately were not able to convert the scoring opportunities their solid defense delivered eventually going down by 7. Best game of the weekend and the score didn’t reflect some very good passages of plays.

Great weekend girls. Thanks to the parents for getting the girls to the games and scoring.

12-1 Boys – Southern Peninsula Tournament
Our boys had a fantastic tournament.  We won 3 out of our 4 matches to qualify into the Semi Final.  The effort put in by the boys and their teamwork was great to see.  The team’s improvement in just one month of working together was tremendous and shown by their narrow loss to Bullen by 3 points in the 3rd match of the tournament.  Unfortunately we lost once more to Bullen in the Semi Final by 7 points however the boys put in a gallant effort.  Their drive and determination kept the game close the whole way through and we had very nervous parents on the sidelines! Bulleen went on to win the tournament.  Thank you to our boys for all of their efforts this weekend and thank you to all of our families for their support and encouragement during the tournament.

We had 3 games on the Saturday the first being against the Southern Peninsula Sharks. The scores were close all game and it came down to the last 7 seconds of the game when one of the girls in our team shot her first goal of the season to draw the game for us at 14 all. As a team we were very excited as this was the closest we had come to winning a game so far this season. Our second game of the day was ‘abandoned’ due to the wet weather outside leaking through the roof so we were unable to play. Our third game of the day was against Bulleen, we kept even with them for half the game, even being up by one point at half time. We ended up losing the game 7-17 which wasn’t a bad effort considering it was Bulleen who went on to win the Grand Final in our pool. On Sunday we had one game against Western Port where we went down 15-24 although it didn’t as such feel like a loss as the girls still enjoyed themselves and had fun out on the court which was all a part of participating in the tournament as well. Overall the girls played a very good tournament and have improved so much just over a weekend. I look forward to the season ahead coaching these girls.

12/2 boys

Well done to the 12/2 boys for winning their final at the tournament. The boys remained undefeated throughout & ended up in the final with our fellow team mates of the 12/3s. It was a very intense final & all players put in 110% & used all the energy they had left after all the games they played.

Kilsyth 12-3 Boys "Runners Up"
On a wet and miserable Saturday, after the boys played their domestic games we headed down to Mt Eliza to play our first game against "Traralgon".  The boys won this game by 1 point (23-22).

After taking a lunch break, we then headed to Frankston Basketball Stadium, Seaford.  We were up against home town team "The Peninsula Sharks".  Again the boys got away with a 1 point win
(16-15). 
 
After a good night sleep, we were up early and headed to the Frankston Basketball Stadium, for an early morning game against "Frankston".  The boys again played very well and walked away with a convincing win and their 3rd for the tournament winning 28-8. 
Our final game against Bulleen, was one that we needed to win to cement our place in the finals, the boys again did us proud by winning 32-23.  This took us to the semi-final against the "Peninsula Sharks".  Winning this game would mean a possible grand final showdown with our Kilsyth 12-2’s team.  After trailing at halftime (2-11), our boys got it together and made a miraculous comeback winning 20-14.  What an exciting win it was!
 
After the semi-final win, the coaches, the boys and their families took some time out, some heading to the Dromana Ice-creamery, some taking a walk on the pier, some even taking the opportunity to use some pre-game tactics against the other team. 
 
It was then back to the Dromana Basketball Stadium for the Grand Final showdown "Kilsyth 12-3 Boys vs Kilsyth 12-2 boys".  Our boys really took it up to the 12-2 boys and it was close for most of the game, our boys even taking the lead at one stage by 5 points.  In the end the 12-3 boys could not finish it off and the 12-2 boys ran away with it, winning 37-27.  Well done to our Kilsyth 12-2 Boys on their win!
 
All in all, it was a successful and enjoyable tournament to be involved in, well done to our boys, to Craig Linton & Jenny DeKoning who have done such an amazing job with this group so far.  We are all looking forward to watching this group improve and seeing what they can achieve this season.

14-2 Boys
What a successful Tournament we had! As we ventured down the Peninsula bright and early on both days we knew we would have our work cut out for us.

Day 1 saw us unfortunately lose both our games but only by the smallest of margins…going down to the Sharks by 6 pts., followed by Werribee by 2pts.

On Day 2 we came out to play…we needed to win both games in order for us to even get a looking at finals as we were sitting 7th-bottom of the ladder!

We took out our first challenge against Westernport fairly convincingly 32-9 and Game 4 against Blackburn we also overcame 23-18 (lucky for us Coach Aaron found his way to the venue!) As a result we landed in 4th spot on the ladder giving us a finals berth and it was off to Seaford for a Semi-Final game against McKinnon. With some good vision and teamwork we scored a win 25-6 and surprisingly found ourselves back in the car and heading to Mornington for a Grand Final match which as it turned out was up against the Sharks who defeated us on Day 1.

A low scoring game overall but some good "D" under the boards secured us a 4 pt. victory and the title of Tournament Premiers!! It was Gold medals for the boys and 3 cheers for the Coach on a job well done!!

COBRA 14 BLACK

Cobra 14 black team went into the tournament behind the eight ball, after only having one week of coach and team together. Our goal was to gel together and start putting in place our team “personality ", also to try different combinations on court.

Our first game the boys  tried to play " whatever " basketball, as the coach’s tried to force them into structure, we won by 13 points. The boys started to listen over the next two games, and we started to find the different combinations had little effect on the court, they were gelling well with anybody on court. The second and third games we won by 6 and 22 points.

By the fourth game the boys were confident and were setting up structures themselves, they won this game by 9 points. First semi-final they continued with their confidence and ability to listen to instructions, winning by 9 points.

In the grand final the boys continued with what they were doing (working hard ) and had a small lead with 3 minutes to go, then the opposition hit 3 outside shots and a free throw to level the score at full time. In the 3 minute extra time the opposition got 2 points up , then had free throws with 20 seconds to go and hit 1, winning by 3.

The boys were extremely disappointed. We will regroup, and be a far better team from playing this tournament. The most impressive thing was the even spread across the team, everybody contributed. We had a great tournament, and exceeded our expectations.