Basketballers leap into NT Sports Carnival

The ADF Hawks men’s and women’s basketball teams that competed in the NT Sports Carnival pose in front of their namesake after team sponsor BAE Systems named the men’s team the Hawks a few years ago.

By Capt Jayne Tauschke
The Australian Defence Basketball Association, sponsored by BAE Systems, was well represented recently in the Northern Territory with both a women’s and men’s team at the NT Sports Carnival from May 17-24.

The NT Sports Carnival replaced the Arafura Games that was cancelled at short notice due to the SARS virus that resulted in many teams, particularly from Asia, not competing.

The NT Sports Carnival consisted of many sports including basketball, with the ADF playing the Northern Territory State team, an invitational team and a Combined United States College team.

The women’s competition was extremely competitive with the ADF women winning a thrilling opening match against the USA by one point, scoring the winner with just a few seconds to go.
ADF also accounted for the NT team, beating the NT State team twice, the second time in overtime, which produced some exciting basketball.

The grand final was between the ADF and the US College Team and was played in front of a large crowd at the new Darwin Basketball venue at Marrara.

It was a fantastic game of basketball all the way until the last couple of minutes when the USA pulled away from the ADF team to win 89 points to 73.

The contest was a fantastic effort by the team against much taller and younger opponents.

The men’s team was decimated by late withdrawals and was no match for a slick US outfit, with no team member less than 6ft 4 or over 22 years old.

The NT team was also too good for the ADF men.

NT then played the USA in the final going down by some 30 points.

Overall it was a fantastic carnival put together at short notice. There was great camaraderie between all the teams and high levels of sportsmanship were displayed.

The ADFBA would like to acknowledge the support of BAE Systems for this carnival and for its continuous support since 1998.

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