High school basketball started the excitement machine on Tuesday afternoon at Saxby’s Stadium when Wanderers and Celtics hit the court in the U15 age division and after 40 minutes of close and exciting basketball the final siren sounded to find the teams locked together at 63 points all. Both teams fired up quickly with Wanderers going to the first break up 16 to 13, then Celtics outscored their opponents 15 to 14 in second quarter to see the margin sitting at just 2 points at the long break. Wanderers pushed the score line out to 46 to 40 by the end of the third quarter before Celtics fought back hard in the final stanza to bridge the gap and produce a drawn result. Jacob Straub from Wanderers and Jordan Woodward from Celtics were in sparkling form to lead the scoring with 34 and 31 points respectively with Jaland Small (14) and Jack Boyd (10) playing good supporting roles.

The U18 game between Hotshots and Wizards was just as exciting and finished with Wizards taking the honours by a single point 58 to 57. Wizards started the better of the two teams and were up 30 to 25 at the half time break. Hotshots outscored their opponents by 4 points in the third term to reduce the margin to just 1 point heading into the fourth quarter. The run to the finish line produced very good junior basketball and right on full time Nathan Smith was fouled on a 3 point shot which saw him go to the line for 3 free shots with Wizards up 58 to 55. Smith hit the first two before the third one rimmed out to give Wizards the narrowest of victories. Dakota Manton and Ty Brislane with 19 and 16 points respectively topped the scoring for Wizards, while Nathan Smith also with 19 points led the way for Hotshots.

Close results spilled over into the women’s competitions when Young Guns and Coastal First Aid battled hard for forty minutes only to be separated by a single basket when the siren sounded for full time. Young Guns claimed the win 52 to 50 on the back of very good performances from Shaylee Gaudron (20) and Sarah Macaitis (13) while for Coastal First Aid, Cherena Robertson was the best player on court scoring 24 points and dominating the rebounds at both ends of the court. Robertson has all the skills and young players wishing to improve their game should sit and watch her efforts on court, taking special note of her tenacity in the rebounding department of the game.

Men’s basketball will be back at Saxby’s Stadium again tonight from 6.00pm and games played last week saw competition leaders, Tigers, maintain their undefeated record with a big win over Hawks before Kings and Wildcats battled hard to produce a thriller with a Brandon Betts shot breaking the deadlock right on full time to give Kings the win 50 to 48.

Eddie Corben and Alistair Elridge with 28 and 25 points respectively led the way for Tigers in their win over Hawks 83 to 29. Chris Small topped the scoring for Hawks to finish with 9 points. John Blenkin (17) and Troy Knutson (11) topped the scoring for Kings in their win while for Wildcats, the Turner brothers, Steven and Chris, combined for 31 points to keep the result in doubt until final siren.    

Most individual players have now completed their NSW Basketball registration payment through Taree Basketball and those who are still dragging their feet need to make the payment before taking the court next week. EFTPOS facilities are available at Saxby’s Stadium to assist the patment process

Saxby's Stadium is the home of Taree Basketball and details about the sport may be obtained on the telephone (02) 6551 7456, by email tareebasketball@hotmail.com, on the net at www.taree.basketball.net.au or track down taree.tornadoes on Facebook.