Advancing to the big dance Corowa’s Wildcats Under 16 side faced off against a classy Breakers outfit who had only lost one game all season.
The Wildcats started well scoring a few early baskets to take a small lead.
Their defensive pressure was keeping the Breakers at bay early on as a lot of their scoring drives were stopped and the boys were playing strong one-on-one defence to stop any open perimeter shots.
Breakers were expected to come out hard and they started getting inside the defence to put a score on the board however the Wildcats continued to fight it out as the foul count showed with tough physical plays happening on both ends of the court.
A highlight of the first half for the Corowa team was their offensive passing as they were looking for each other and they were working well together in defence.
The Breakers took a 6-point lead into the half-time break 22-16.
Something significant changed after the half-time break with the Breakers able to pierce the Wildcats’ defence with a bit more ease whilst shutting down their passing game at the other end of the court.
This led us to be taking shots that may not have been there as the pressure mounted on the guys to score.
It was about seven minutes into the second half before we scored our first bucket for the half whilst the Breakers had built a 12-point lead.
Time out was called and a chance to talk about it and regroup helped as we started to claw back the Breakers lead.
This was to be short-lived however as their best shooter was able to get free on the perimeter and with good screens by his team was able to put up some uncontested three-pointers which were going in at an alarming rate.
The Wildcats were fighting hard, but the lead had blown out to 20 points late in the half and from there besides the rampant fouling by the Breakers they traded buckets with the final score being a 20-point win to the Breakers.
When the boys look back on the Wildcats season it was a topsy-turvy one and they have done well to overcome injury and internal game issues to make the grand final and put up a good fight.
Well done to all the guys for in my view a successful season on the court.
The team have played some great basketball during the season with the Semi Final being their best game.
I think they all learnt a lot about themselves and each other this season which will help them all in the future.
Thanks to Kate Buller for coaching this season and getting them to their first grand final.
Coaching a team of teenage boys isn't easy and Kate has done a fantastic job all season with the group.