Basketball Reports – Round 1, 2018

Captains of Basketball Report

Angelo Di Bartolo & Dion Hatziandreou, Co-Captains of Basketball

Juniors

Being the first round of the CAS Summer Season, the junior teams were all looking forward to posting wins to start their seasons strong. Unfortunately, the 8A, 9A and 10A teams were all unsuccessful in Round 1 falling short against Barker. While, the 10A’s lost by only one point in a 30-29 loss, their newest member, Fritz Jahnke-Tavana, lead the team with his defensive presence. The 8A’s were defeated by a small margin of 9 points and the 10A’s were beaten by 13.

Seniors

With an overall successful pre-season camp, followed by a pre-season tournament, the 1sts and 2nds squads were looking to build momentum on their paths towards success for the 2018-19 season. Motivated from a team get-together the night before, both teams could not wait to play against the defending CAS Premiers.

2nd V

The 2nd V got their season off on the right track, getting past Barker in a nail-biting 51-47 victory. An all-round effort from the team was able to get them over the line, improving on their one point first half lead to take the game by four in the end. Darcy Mullins was able to spark a fourth quarter run, scoring 6 points in the quarter, along with Keilan Grace, who contributed a game high 14 points. Keilan was also able to ice the game with two clutch free throws with 6 seconds remaining, getting the 2nd V off to a 1-0 start.

1st V

Unfortunately for the 1st V, they suffered a 63-57 defeat at the hands of Barker. Once again, the boys got off to a confident start unlike the prior encounter with Scots the weekend before. With a jump shot from Thomas Deakin-Bell to an electric fast break dunk from Ryan Abbott, the team was becoming extremely intriguing to watch going into the break with a 4-point lead. The second half did not start off exactly as planned with Barker quickly distinguishing the lead and taking the 3rd quarter 19-11, to go into the 4th with their own 4-point lead. Fortunately for Waverley, 11 points from Christian Diaz including three 3’s during the quarter, kept them in the fight. The fourth quarter was constantly back and forth with a clutch shot from Dion Hatziandreou with little time remaining to put the game within 2 points, but it was not enough. Ash Backlund starred for the blue and gold in the loss, coming off the bench to score 19 points on 11/15 free throw shooting, 6 rebounds and 4 steals. Although a disappointing loss, there were several positives to take out from the game, particularly towards the end, cutting an 11-point deficit to just 2 with 40 seconds remaining. Despite this, it was too little too late for the boys and Barker were able to hold on. The 1st V squad will be leaving this game with their heads held high and looking forward to next week’s encounter against CAS premier contenders, Knox.

Convenor of Basketball Report

From Convenor of Basketball, Anthony Gibbs

Last weekend saw Waverley take on Barker in the first round of the 2019 CAS basketball season. For the 1st and 2nd squads basketball did not stop following the end of the 2018 season, as many players continued training in the off-season program offered during Terms 2 and 3, which included strength and conditioning and a basketball skills session each week.

In the July holiday break, 4 staff members and 19 students travelled to Brisbane to participate in the EREA Basketball Tournament, hosted by St James College, who were celebrating their 150-year anniversary. Twelve schools from around Australia participated in three days of competitive basketball. Our senior team was highly competitive in their division winning two games against St Patrick’s (45-36) and St Laurence’s (62-54) and narrowly losing their other three games by 5, 7 and 16 points. Our junior team, comprised of mainly Year 8 students, while not achieving any wins, played with a lot of heart and enthusiasm and all members came away better for the experience, despite having competed in the U16 division. Apart from the tournament, the group enjoyed staying in the boarding facilities of St Joseph’s Nudgee College, sightseeing in Brisbane, playing mini-golf and ten-pin bowing, seeing Ant-Man and the Wasp at the cinema and watching Game 3 of the State of Origin with a large group of Queenslanders, who were also boarding at St Joseph’s. On the final day, the group travelled to Warner Bros Movie World, spending the day enjoying the rides and attractions.

It was a very successful tour with players thoroughly enjoying themselves, making new friends and playing the game they love. Thank you to staff members, Mr Richard Chen, Mr Johnny Jovine (1^st V coach) and Mr Linden Smith-Hyde (2^nd V coach), our junior players (Cameron Abbott, Aodan Byrne, Jonathan Chen, Isaac Diaz, Freddy Hunt, James Jones, James Kort, Reuben Maree, Roman Mellis, Hugo Roles, Jacob Smith and Alejandro Zanapalis) and our seniors (Ryan Abbott, Ash Backlund, Christian Diaz, Clem Halaholo, Kyle Goulding, Patrick O’Sullivan and Ben Walton). Thank you also to Head of College, Mr Graham Leddie, and Head of Co-curriculum, Mr Stephen O’Donnell, for their support of the tour.

During the last month of Term 3 the pre-season program for the 1st, 2nd and all A/B teams commenced. The 1st and 2nd squads played a series of trial games against regular pre-season opponents Marcellin, Shore, St Patrick’s and Sydney Grammar and, for the first time, Marist College North Shore. The 1sts were able to snatch a 2-point win against Marcellin in their opening trial game of the season, while the 2nds played the Marist’s 1st team, going down 56-44. The following week, the 1sts posted another win, this time against St Patrick’s (83-79), while the 2nds were also victorious (39-30). Shore was next up and proved to be very tough opponents, with the Shore 1st V being one of the favourites to take out the GPS competition this season. Waverley were unable to match Shore in the 1sts, losing heavily 98-46, while our 2nds were very competitive in their game, going down 39-30. The last series of trial games before the holiday break were against Sydney Grammar. The 1sts game was a tightly contested affair, however Waverley was unable to come away with the win, narrowly missing out with the final score being 66-64. The 2nds played well to enjoy a morale boosting win 73-52 after their previous two losses.

Waverley 2^nd V opened their 2019 CAS campaign with a hard-fought 51-47 win over Barker. Coach Mr Smith-Hyde reports that after a sluggish start, Waverley were able to take the lead back midway through the first half on the back of some big defensive plays from team captain Joey Lyons. Both teams traded baskets and the lead to eventually head into the halftime break with just one point separating the two sides. While the game remained tight during the early part of the second half, Waverley were able to pull away from Barker through another strong team defensive effort that led to easy fast break points on the back of some big plays from Ben Walton and Darcy Mullins. To Barker’s credit, they fought back and the sides were once again neck and neck heading into the final few minutes of the game. However, Waverley’s hard work in the preseason showed down the stretch as the team came up with some big stops and executed offensively to take back control of the game. Kelian Grace hit two big free throws to seal the victory in the final seconds. It was a great team effort by all the players with Ben Walton, Keilan Grace and Joey Lyons excelling.

Coming into the game, the 1^st V were optimistic of their chances against last year’s CAS premiers. Coach Mr Johnny Jovine thought that Waverley began strong, however, was unable to handle the pressure as the game progressed, turning the ball over too much. Up until the second half, the game remained close with neither team able to pull away from the other, however in the fourth quarter with 3:30 left on the clock, Barker was able to move out to a 12-point lead. With little time left in the game, the 1sts lifted to take control and reduce Barker’s lead to 2 points with less than a minute to go. However, with Barker’s next possession they were able run down the shot-clock and come away with a basket to stretch their lead to 4 points, leaving Waverley with 22 seconds left on the clock. On Waverley’s final possession, they were unable to score, turning the ball over and sending Barker to the foul line. The game ended with Barker eventual winners 63-57 and while the 1^st V will take heart from the way they played in the last few minutes of the game, they will rue their missed opportunities and lack of composure in a game that was winnable. Ryan Abbott, Ash Backlund and Tom Deakin-Bell were the standouts on the day.

In other games, Waverley were successful across many teams against Barker. The following teams recorded wins: 5^th V (35-28), 10C (31-20), 10H (32-16), 9C (26-18), 9D (41-23), 9E (36-12), 9F (33-19), 9H (34-6), 8B (23-21), 8C (28-19), 8D (23-21), 8E (20-10), 8F (14-13) and 8H (22-17). The 4^th V (39-39) and 9F’s (15-15) drew their games with the 5^th V (35-28), 6^th V (34-33), 10^th V (24-22), 10A (30-29), 10B (39-32), 9B (25-24) and 9G (26-24) playing well despite losing in close games.

Waverley Basketball welcomes new staff member, Mr Matthew Johnston, to our coaching ranks. Mr Johnston is a full-time staff member and an experienced basketball coach. Among other achievements, he has coached state and representative teams in NSW and QLD, worked for Basketball Australia on their development camps and been a development coach for an NBL team. Waverley is fortunate to have a coach of Mr Johnston’s experience on staff. Mr Johnston is taking the 10A/B’s this season and we wish him the best of luck.

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Good luck to all teams this weekend against Knox!