NSW slam dunks basketball titles

AB Brendan Edminston of HMAS Harman slams home another for ACT in the men’s final against NSW won 80-73.

Photo: PTE Shannon Joyce

It was a blue day in Melbourne on November 20 when NSW took out both the men’s and women’s titles at the National ADF Basketball championships.

The NSW men defeated QLD in the final by just seven points, 80-73 while the NSW women had a 3 point win over ACT, 49-46.

MVP for the tournament was RAAF’s CPL Ken Robertson, who was also the competition’s highest point scorer, while for the women, LACW Heather Edwards took out the MVP and CPL Gill Rutledge was the tournament’s highest scorer.

The men’s final looked grim for NSW when they sat at an 11-point deficit to Queensland by quarter time, 13-24 and at half time they sat even further behind, 35-48.

NSW captain LT Michael Wicks said it was at that point the team came together and put in a combined effort.

The third quarter was all NSW, clawing their way back into conten-tion with strong defensive play and a coordinated team effort in offence.

The NSW team turned their 13- point half time deficit into a 2-point lead heading into the final quarter. Once the momentum changed, NSW’s game plan never swayed, holding out Queensland to win by seven points 80-73.

The game was played in great spirit and was one of the hardest fought finals in years.

In the women’s final between NSW and ACT the game was played very defensively with no more than a handful of points separating the teams throughout the game.

The drive of ACT’s first champi-onship appearance in four years kept them fighting, with a tight score-line all the way but it was NSW who took the win by just three points.

The ACT coach, MIDN Peter Bounty said of his team, “Our intent was to rattle NSW from the start with full court man to man defence and to control the tempo of the game.

“I felt we had the ascendancy for most of the game maintaining a two to six point lead, but to NSW’s credit they never gave up and prevented us from gaining a match winning lead.

“Early in the final quarter we struggled against an uneven foul count (5-0) which put key ACT play-ers in foul trouble and sent the NSW girls to the line for free throws.

At the end of the day NSW were in front when it counted.”

NSW’s LACW Heather Edwards, the tournament’s most valuable play-er, pulled her team away in the final minute, to take the game 49-46.

The Frenchie McDougall Memorial Award, named after a player who was a significant con-tributor to ADF Basketball before passing away in 1997, was won by FLTSGT Graham Joce from Victoria.

The national side selected to play at the Arafura Games next year:

Women

FLGOFF Fiona Harris, LACW Heather Edwards, ACWR Karen Herbert, SGT Janeter Turnbull, FLGOFF Claire Ingham, CPL Gill Rutledge, FLGOFF Evelyn Dalley, PL Danni Stone, PTE Cindi Burlich, PTE Kate Spencer, PTE Jess Matthews, LSCIS Briana Bugden.

Men

LT Andrew Olechnowicz, PTE Jarryd Entwistle, SPR Karl Teske, PTE Lucas Tannis, LCPL Aaron Marsh, LT Mick Wicks, CPL Jason Brown, SMN Aaron Mealing, MIDN Scot Northey, LAC Ben Hutchison, CPL Ken Robertson and LAC Andrew Jaunutis. basketball titles

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