The Lakers Men recovered from a dismal first day at the 2015 SA Country Basketball Senior Championships to finish strongly and win the A Grade Grand Final over last year’s grand finalist, Murray Bridge 54-46. It was a “bitter sweet win” after Murray Bridge dumped the Lakers out of the finals last year.

Meanwhile, the Lakers Women performed well and played off in the Grand Final after a demanding 6 game minor round fixture. Great Southern Women took a firm grip on the first half of the Grand Final through their superior height and strength led by Sarah White. The Lakers made determined surges in the second half but Great Southern managed to hang on to win the A Grade Women’s title 44-39 and maintain their unbeaten record for the Championships. Brianna Walters top scored for the Lakers with 17 points, Malinda Markiewicz had 8 and Ebony McDiarmid 5. Sarah White of Great Southern was judged MVP in the final. Amy singleton of Port Augusta won the Mrs Mudge MVP for the A Grade women’s competition.

The Lakers women defeated Port Pirie 43-25 to begin the Championships but then lost to Great Southern 39-48. They then went on to score wins over Strathalbyn 49-44 in double over-time, Yorke Valley 41-23, Jamestown 40-29 and in their best game of the weekend, defeated Port Augusta 55-45.

The Lakers men had a lack lustre minor round on Saturday when they scored just one win from their three outings. They lost to last year’s winner, Eastern Hills Blue, 47-56, and Port Augusta 40-48 then finished the day with a 44-36 win over Riverland. This placed the Lakers third in Pool B and rostered to meet Pool A second placed Strathalbyn in the Quarter Final on Sunday.

Sunday was certainly another day for the Lakers Men when they came to play and defeated Strathalbyn 62-55, then played extremely well to defeat 2014 Champion Eastern Hills Blue, 45-40 in the semi-final. Murray Bridge defeated Port Pirie 53-46 in the other semi-final.

It was all Murray Bridge in the first half of the grand final when they led by as many as 19 points. The Lakers however persevered and but still stared at a 12 point deficit at three quarter time.

With 8 minutes to play the Lakers had closed the gap to 5 and at the 6 minute mark they hit then front to lead by 2. From here on the Lakers finished strongly to win 54-46.

Leading scorers for the Lakers were Simon Berkefeld with 18 points, Sam Stafford on 14 and Dellon Brown on 8. Simon Berkefeld won the Pat O’Keeffe Award for the MVP in the grand final.    

Strathalbyn’s Dylan Rawson won the Frank Clarke MVP award for the Men’s competition.