The SA Country Junior Basketball contingent which competed in the 2015 Australian Country Basketball Cup came home with the Under 18 Women’s title and the Beth Serle Cup. Junior Lakers first year players, Tenille Gray and Brenna McKay were members of the winning Sharks team, which defeated the Vic. Settlers 54-53. Glenn Mathieson of Naracoorte coached the team.

The Sharks finished with a 5-1 win/loss record after the minor rounds. The Vic. Settlers inflicted the only loss on the Sharks, 73-61. Settlers’ trump card, Dandenong WNBL player Chloe Bibby, dominated as she did for most of the week.

The Sharks had to get over sister team the SA Country Magpies, led by Rachael Hines,55-46, in the semi-final and hence get a crack at the final and hopefully go one better than last year.

The Sharks made a strong start and led 28-20 at half-time despite the work by Bibby and then managed to hang on to a 6 point lead at the final break. The Settlers really turned up the heat in the final 10 minutes and grabbed the lead for a period. Not to be denied the Sharks regained a one point lead in the closing minute of the final.

With 13 seconds to play the Sharks had possession and appeared likely to hang on. Not so, the Settlers forced a jump ball and gained possession with just 7 seconds to play. An unbelievable “tap away” from “go to” player Bibby by Brenna McKay was pounced on by the Sharks Captain Kenisha Seidel thus securing the title for SA Country.

This is an outstanding achievement for Lakers players McKay and Gray; Brenna now has three Country Cup Gold medals in her trophy cabinet and Tenille two..

In contrast, Coach Mathieson has had to wait until his sixth Country Cup title game to claim his first Gold medal.        

The fairy tale of the 2015 Country Cup belongs to the Magpies Under 14 Girls’ team coached by Mount Gambier Junior Development Officer, Trevor Semmens and Nikeisha Facey a member.

SA Country sent three Under 14 Girls’ teams to the Cup this year thus giving more players a taste of this high standard of competition. As a result, the teams were expected to be challenged throughout the week.

Contrary to expectations, the Magpies finished top of their pool, won the semi-final and then lined up for the title game against the NSW Ospreys, who defeated them by 22 earlier in the week. The Magpies led for all but the closing couple of minutes of the game when Ospreys snatched the title 59-56.

Fellow state coaches and parents praised the efforts of Semmens in leading this team to the title game. All players improved dramatically over the week under his guidance and left the Cup better players with a better understanding of the game.

The other Lakers Under 14 Girls, Emily Close, Ellen Brown and Manon Finch all played well for their respective sides.

Lakers Olivia Dukalskis and Lauren Ross, members of the Sharks Under 16 team, were unlucky to lose their semi-final by one point to the Vic. Bushrangers. Both Lakers players had a good week and played well. Bella Stratford of the Under 16 Lakers side suffered an ankle injury which hampered her performances over the week.    

Mount Gambier’s Joel Duncan and Duncan Reid were members of the Settlers’ team which finished the Cup week with a 6-2 win/loss record.

Lakers’ players, Brad Rathjen, Brad Close, Lachlan Hunter and Kurt Rodis in the SA Country Under 18 Men teams found the going tough against bigger and stronger opposition. The Sharks team did not win a minor round game but defeated Albury/Wodonga and Magpies in the play-offs, while the Magpies won one of their round games.  

Danika Jolley, representing SA Country as a referee, was rewarded for her performances by being appointed umpire for the Under 16 Girls Gold Medal game. Allan Garroway, Referee Commissioner for the Cup was most impressed with her officiating over the week.