THE Leongatha Lightning Under 18 Boys team made a mighty run at the holy grail of Victorian country basketball last weekend, the premier division of Basketball Victoria’s Junior Country Championships, and in the most thrilling of circumstances, they’ve come away with a silver medal.
But in the see-sawing, high-class final against the red-hot favourites of the competition, Ballarat, on Sunday at Bendigo, it could so easily have been gold.
The Leongatha team, which draws talent from around the district, led the final to half time, by 26 to 19, `before Ballarat turned it around to lead 40 to 39 at three quarter time. The lead then changed several times in the run to the line with Ballarat hitting a couple of three pointers over the closing stages to take the lead and then stretch the final score to 59-54, a five-point victory that didn’t give a true indication of the closeness of the contest.
Hundreds of local basketball fans watched the semi-final against Geelong and the final against Ballarat on livestream but it was frustration at the extreme when the coverage went down with 30 seconds to go, with Ballarat leading by two points. With 15 seconds left, Ballarat iced the game with a three.
Even so, it was a magnificent campaign by the Lightning boys, who had to pull off some incredible wins along the way, first against Phillip Island in the last pool match on Saturday when Tom Vuillermin found Willem Duursma for a three-pointer at the end to break the deadlock and see them through to a semi-final against another powerhouse program Geelong on Sunday morning.
Again, the match was a high-class thriller, this time with Willem Duursma finding Tom Vuillermin for a three-point shot that sailed through the air while the final buzzer sounded and swished through for the winner, with Geelong leading by two before the shot went up.
It was pandemonium as the boys had won through to the final against Ballarat and they really looked the part, with end-to-end action in the final, and top-standard shooting throughout by both teams.
It really could have gone either way, with every player on the roster playing their part, but given the circumstances, a silver medal was a huge badge of honour for a smaller program against the state’s biggest names in basketball.
Officials have since praised the efforts of the boys and also warmly congratulated on their demeanour both on court and off throughout a thrilling weekend.
