THE Northern All Stars Under 18 girls - featuring Macksville’s Amelia Webb - and Under 18 boys teams played in their inaugural NSW Basketball Country Premier League competition at Coffs Harbour.
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This was a great step forward for the smaller Northern Junior League Associations as it allowed their players the opportunity to play at the highest level competition in NSW Country Basketball.
Represented by players from Tamworth, Armidale, Bellingen, Coffs Harbour, Grafton, Lismore, Port Macquarie and Taree as well as Macksville, both Northern All Stars teams played strongly in their first outing much to the delight of their coaches, managers, parents and supporters.
While neither team recorded a victory in their inaugural tournament, they demonstrated that they were not just there to make up the numbers.
In their first game against Coffs Harbour Suns, the All Star Girls took time to adjust to playing as a unit for the first time.They are looking forward to giving the well drilled Coffs team a much closer match in the ensuing rounds.
In their second game against the strong Newcastle Hunters, the girls gave the Hunters a shock with their strong and tenacious play before fading in the last quarter. Coach Beau Montgomery, from Port Macquarie, considered this match the girls’ best of the weekend.
In their third and final game of the weekend, against the Maitland Mustangs, the team started sluggishly before staging a strong comeback in the last quarter to finally go down by nine points.
In a similar fashion, the All Star Under 18 boys’ first game against a strong Newcastle Hunters side saw the lads take time to adjust to playing together.
In their second game, against the Maitland Mustangs, the All Stars started to find combinations and gave a good account of themselves.
In their final match of the weekend the All Stars came up against the strong Gosford City Rebels who were undefeated in their first two games. The All Star boys played strongly before being overcome.
In the second round, in May, the Northern All Stars travel to Minto to play the remaining sides from the Southern and Western areas of the State.
Strong performances throughout the weekend at Coffs were given by Georgia Hunt 33 points, Courtney Smith 32 points, Janica Duncombe 28 points and Katie Burghart 17 points, with developing confidence displayed by Zoe Hurley and Shelby Grainger, ably supported by Amelia Webb, Ruby Roddenby, and Lauren Beasley
All Stars boys Scott McGann 25 points, Nick Lewis 19 points, Harry Griffiths 16 points, Jacob Straub 16 points were well supported in the team performances by Sam Petrie, Ben Lavery, Corin Webster, Jordan Woodward, Joshua Minihan, and Jack Maunder.
