By Melissa Thomas

Monday 24^th November was the first of four McDonalds State Grand Final days held out at Dandenong Basketball Stadium for the Junior All Star Boys and Junior All Star Girls. The day was expected to be great and it didn’t disappoint. The 20 best boys and 20 best girls basketball teams from across Victoria went to battle to see who would come out on top. It was great to see teams from all across the state competing with some teams travelling from Warrnambool, Maffra, and Wodonga to name a few. All teams across the day tried their best and all games were competitive but unfortunately there can only be one boys team and one girls team named as State Champions.

The first of two Boys Semi Finals was close at half time with Warrnambool PS taking a 1 point lead into the half time break over St Anne’s Park Orchards PS. Warrnambool had been undefeated all day and were looking strong to take out the game but St Anne’s would not go away, and after half time scored 12 - 2 to run over the top of Warrnambool PS and book a spot in the Grand Final match.

The second Boys Semi Final was even closer at Half Time with Mooroolbark East PS and St Finbar’s PS even on 6 points. The second half was exciting with each team trying their hardest and getting in front only to be reeled back in and at the final siren we had a DRAW 14 all. The draw meant that we had to go to over time. Over time was a frantic 3 minutes with each team trying their hardest to get that winning edge and at the end of over time the result was St Finbar’s by 3 points leaving Mooroolbark East shattered knowing they had given it their best shot but had missed out.

Now that the finalists had been worked out it was time for the BIG game between St Finbar’s PS and St Anne’s PS. The Final wasn’t as close as expected and St Finbar’s took the momentum from their Over Time Semi Final into the Grand Final and started with a bang! Leading 13 – 0 over St Anne’s at half time. The second half was a little more competitive but after a long day and 7 other games of basketball St Finbar’s ran over the top of St Anne’s taking out the State Champions Title 24-12.

Across the day in the girl’s pool games it was clear that there were some strong girls teams. The first Semi Final was between St Martin of Tours PS (St Martins) the reigning Junior All Star Girls State Champions and Eltham North PS. The game was quick and St Martins got off to a flying start leading 8-0 at half time. Unfortunately for Eltham North they threw everything at the reigning champs but could only manage 2 points for the game with St Martins running away to the Grand Final match with an 18-2 win.

The second Semi for the girls was between Our Lady of the Pines PS (OLOP) and Yarra Road PS and similar to the first Semi Final OLOP got off to a great start taking a 12-4 advantage into the half time break, and continued on in the second despite a hard fort effort from Yarra Road winning 18-6.

The Grand Final Match was set, the reigning champions St Martins up against OLOP, St Martins again took off fast taking a 9-2 lead into the half time break over OLOP and after half time they didn’t stop and ran home comfortably to claim back to back State Champion Titles with a 23-6 victory.

Junior All Star Boys State Champions – St Finbar’s PS

Junior All Stars Boys Runner Up – St Anne’s PS (Park Orchards)

Junior All Star Girls State Champions – St Martins of Tours PS

Junior All Star Girls Runner Up – Our Lady of the Pines PS