Some great results for round 10 for the Storm, with two wins from three contests.
Championship Men
Bellarine 109 def McKinnon 91
(Lewie Varley 26, Josh Chery & Max Kos 21)
It’s two wins in three games for our Championship Men as they scored a very nice 18 point win against McKinnon at McKinnon on Saturday night.
Josh Chery started with a splash, scoring the Storm’s opening 7 points of the first quarter, to kick start a 35 to 17 opening burst, to leave the home side in their wake, taking a big 18 point lead to the first break.
Whilst McKinnon, restored some balance in the contest in the second quarter, however, the Storm were still running hot and rounded out the term to take a 29 point buffer into the main break.
As expected, Mc Kino pushed hard again in the third term, but with the Storm continuing to find ways to score, the home side could only reduce our lead by 7 points with a quarter to play.
Into the last and with a very handy lead in place, the Storm just had to keep doing what they had been doing all night and another victory was in reach.
Lewie Varley and Josh Chery teamed up at the start of the last term, scoring 17 points between them by midway through the last, to put the result beyond doubt, to pick up an important second victory for Season 2023.
Division 1 Women
Bellarine 71 def Craigieburn 49
(Georgia Varley 17 pts & 12 rebs, Chantelle Hall 17)
After a rare loss the previous week, our Division 1 Women returned to the winners circle on Sunday on the road against Craigieburn, coming away with a strong 22 point victory, to return to the top of the ladder.
It was a defensive arm wrestle in the first term as both sides dialled up the defence, making scoring difficult for each other, as the Storm managed to eke out a 2 point break by quarter time.
That lead was only extended by 1 more point by the end of the second as the close checking defence of both teams continued to be the flavour of the afternoon.
The third quarter saw Georgia Varley and Chantelle Hall begin to break the shackles and become headaches for the Eagles, allowing the Storm to extend their lead to 8 points into the last stanza.
Into the last, Varley and Hall continued to press for the Storm and it was pretty much all one way traffic as we put together a dominant 23 to 9 final term to run out comfortable winners.
Apart from Varley and Hall, the Storm were well serveded by Jamie Crombie and Karli Bruce, who teamed up to quell the dangerous Craigieburn import Courtney Strait throughout the day.
Coming off 43 points last week, Strait was held to 17 points for the game by Crombie and Hall in an important contribution to the victory.
Youth League 2 Men
Bellarine 56 lost to Albury/Wodonga 86
(Sam Maher 18, Ben Walters 10)
The Bandits came ready to hold up the Storm on Saturday night and snuck away to an early lead, before the Storm steadied and ramped up their defensive pressure to make life difficult for Albury Wodonga to trail them by 6 points with a half to play.
That could have been even better, had a Tristan Koga 3 point buzzer beater hadn’t gone in on the point of half time.
Sadly for the Storm, that buzzer beater gave the visitors a real pep in their step in the third term, going on an 18 to 4 run to start the term and pretty much put them in control of the contest, eventually running away with the game by 30 points.
Sam Maher tried hard all game, to finish with 18 points for the night and Captain Ben Walters finishing with 10 points.
Youth League Women
As mentioned late in the week, the scheduled match between Bellarine and Albury/Wodonga has been rescheduled, due to several of the Bandits players being struck down by COVID and being unable to play.
That game has been rescheduled to Round 14 on Sunday 2nd July at 12:00pm.
THIS WEEKEND
ROUND 11
Saturday 3rd June 2023
Youth League 2 Women
Bellarine v Whittlesea @ Mill Park Stadium 6:00pm
Youth League 2 Men
Bellarine v Whittlesea @ Mill Park Stadium 8:00pm
Championship Men
Bellarine v Blackburn @ Mullum Mullum Stadium 8:00pm
Sunday 4th June 2023
Youth League Men
Bellarine v Mornington @ Bellarine Secondary College 12:00pm
Division 1 Women
Bellarine v Warrnambool @ Bellarine Secondary College 2:00pm