news

WA Women play for bronze at U/20 Championships
Featured News

WA Women play for bronze at U/20 Championships

Day Six of the Under 20 & Ivor Burge Championships at Kalamunda saw the Under 20 Men pick up their first win of the tournament and the Under 20 Women pick up a bronze medal game spot.

The day started for the WA teams with the Under 20 Men taking on New Zealand at 11:30am in their second finals game.

Despite entering the game winless WA set the tempo early with a solid 15-8 lead at quarter time.

With WA enjoying a 10 point lead at half time, New Zealand came out stronger in the third period to cut the margin to just four points at three quarter time.

The home side held on to pick up their first win of the tournament, 58-49 with Brendan Tucek leading the way with 17 points and 7 rebounds. Australian Under 19 squad member Rhys Vague finished with 12 points and 9 rebounds.

Jack Salt was the best for New Zealand with 22 points and 12 rebounds.

The WA  Ivor Burge Men were next on court at 1:30pm against NSW Country in their first finals game.

NSW Country got off to a strong start, leading 21-9 at quarter time, with the visitors stretching that lead to 24 points by halftime.

WA was unable to make any inroads with NSW Country taking a 38 point lead into the last break. The home side managed to win the last quarter however NSW Country took the game away 89-54.

David Rulyancich was strong for WA with 21 points and 25 rebounds , Alex Barnes (26 points, 9 rebounds) and Dean Pallier (21 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists) did the damage for NSW Country.

The WA Under 20 Women were next, taking on NSW at 3:00pm in their semi-final game.

The home side was strong early with a gold medal game spot on the line, heading in to the first break down 15-13 with seven points to end the period from Mikayla Pirini and Hannah King.

NSW stretched their lead late in the second quarter to head in to the half time break up 31-19, however WA responded in the third, cutting the margin to just six points at three quarter time with an Amanda Pether three to end the quarter.

With a place in the gold medal game on the line NSW came out strong in the last period to win the game 67-47 with WA left to lament shooting just 25% from the field.

Alcohol .Think Again West Coast Waves squad members Mikayla Pirini and Jessie Edwards both led the scoring for WA with 13 points each.

Lisa Ups was the standout for NSW with 22 points and 9 rebounds while Maddison Doorn had 12 points off the bench.

The Ivor Burge Women were the last team to take the court, taking on South Australia who they beat earlier in the week with their only victory.

The visitors started well taking a five point lead into quarter time, however WA came out firing in the second quarter to take a six point lead into halftime.

However the second half belonged to South Australia who restricted WA to just 7 points while scoring 36 points to run away with the game 55-32.

Anne-Marie Foster stared for WA with 18 points and 8 rebounds while Amy Howard was South Australia’s best with 24 points and 19 rebounds.

The final day of the tournament will see the WA Under 20 Women play for the bronze medal against Queensland at 9:00am in the opening game.

The Under 20 Men will play in the five/six position game against Tasmania at 1:00pm, while the Ivor Burge teams tournaments will finish off with a bye in the last finals round.

The closing ceremony will take place at 8:45pm after the Women’s Under 20 Gold medal game (5:00pm) and the Men’s Gold Medal game (7:00pm).

You can follow the Live Stats and all of the Fixtures/Results at nationals.basketball.net.au.

Keep up to date with all of the Australian Junior Championships (AJC) news by following Basketball Australia on Facebook and Twitter.

Related News