Round 11 of Big V Basketball was a weekend probably best forgotten, with losses in all 5 games for the Club.
Championship Men
Bellarine 84 lost to Blackburn 100
(Nathan Gronbeck 19, Josh Chery 17)
Our Championship Men were unable to make it two wins in a row on Saturday night, going down to Blackburn at Blackburn by 16 points.
After letting the hope side get away to an early 10 point lead on a 10-0 run, Nathan Gronbeck, Seb Thomason and Max Kos set about getting the Storm back into the contest by the quarter time break to trail by just five points.
Blackburn were able to hold off the Storm in the second, despite us narrowing the margin to just two points a couple of times through the term, the home side extending their advantage to 12 points by the half.
Sadly there was very little change to the script in the third term as the Vikings continued to put distance between the two sides on the scoreboard, going into the last term with an almost unbeatable 26 point advantage.
The mountain proved too much for the Storm to climb in the last, despite winning the final term 30 to 20, however, the damage had already been done.
Nathan Gronbeck fought hard all night to finish with 19 points at 78% for the game, along with Josh Chery who chimed in with 17 points for the Storm.
Division 1 Women
Bellarine 64 lost to Warrnambool 70
(Georgia Varley, Bh’rea Griffin 19 pts)
The top of the table clash on Sunday saw Warrnambool exact revenge for our last two meetings as they came out 6 point winners in a tough contest.
With the Storm jumping out of the blocks early and finishing the opening term with an eight point lead, things looked like they were going to plan for Bellarine.
However, Warrnambool aren’t at the pointy end of the competition for no reason, as they set about dismantling the Storm’s lead, to snatch 1 point advantage at the half, setting us up for a thrilling prospect in the second half.
The third term was almost a carbon copy of the second, as the Mermaids continued to press their advantage, whilst the Storm were finding scoring difficult, going at 20 percent from the field for the quarter, due to the close checking defence of the visitors.
Warrnambool continued to control the game into the last quarter, to extend their lead to 18 points midway through the last, before Bh’rea Griffin broke loose to score 11 points inside the last four minutes of the game and threatened to turn the game in the Storm’s favour, however the Mermaids were able to hang on and get the win.
Youth League 2 Men
Saturday
Bellarine 65 lost to Whittlesea 93
(Bailey Goodgame 11)
Sunday
Bellarine 83 lost to Mornington 91
(Ezekiel Rickard 24, Sam Maher 14)
There wasn’t a lot of joy for our Youth League Men on Saturday night, as Whittlesea had a night out with their shooting and were never really challenged at any stage of the contest.
The Storm on the other hand, was finding scoring very difficult, particularly from outside the arc all night, which allowed the scoreboard to become a challenge by mid way through the game.
Captain Ben Walters, Bailey Goodgame and Indi Schwindlewski worked hard all night for the Storm, however, in the end, it was the Pacers’ night.
On Sunday, it was a case of ‘what could have been’ as the Storm hosted Mornington.
After a disappointing outing the night prior, the Storm bounced right out of the blocks and served it up to the third placed Mornington, jumping out to an early lead by the first break, with Ezekiel Rickard showing early touch from downtown and Sam Maher prominent on the scoresheet.
The second quarter was a close one, with the Blazers coming back at the Storm early doors, with the Storm then showing some poise to withstand that first challenge and edge to a small lead, before the visitors came again, to tie the scores at the half.
The Rickard Brothers were proving to be headaches for Mornington, proving to be a solid source of scoring for the Storm, Ezekiel from outside and Levi from inside, allowing Bellarine to hit the three quarter time break with a six point buffer and looking set to cause a boil over.
However, the visitors flexed their muscle in the last term to outscore the Storm 35 to 21 down the stretch, to come over the top and snare the win.
Ezekiel Rickard was best for the Storm scoring 24 points, including 8 of 12 from downtown, which is a Storm Big V Senior Club record. Sam Maher was also important for the Storm with 14 and Captain Ben Walters also having a real presence for his team throughout the afternoon, doing a lot of the heavy physical work for his team.
Youth League Women
Bellarine 80 lost to Whittlesea 93 (OT)
(Summer Field 25, Alicia Field 24)
In one of the most entertaining games of the season to date, disappointingly, our Youth League Women lost their first game of the season on Saturday night, however, it took overtime for the Whittlesea Pacers to cause the upset.
The Storm were looking ominous in the first term, with a sustained burst to open the game and lead by nine points by the first break.
Summer and Alicia Field were teaming up to make life difficult for the Pacers, scoring 14 of the Storm’s 16 second quarter points, whilst Ash Withers and Piper Copeland were giving good support.
Leading by nine points at three quarter time, the Storm looked ready to move to another win, however, never underestimate Whittlesea at home. The Pacers ramped up their game in the last quarter of regular time and pressed, finally hitting the lead with three and a half to go.
Bellarine quickly stole the lead back and moved ahead by five points before Whittlesea pressed again and via a Hailey Cordova three and an Isabella Ryan trip to the free throw line, where she split her two shots, scores were tied at 75 each at the end of regular time.
With Summer Field fouled out of the game late in the fourth quarter, the Storm were in need of a scoring g option to step up in extra time to get the job done.
Whittlesea hit the round running at the start of overtime and established an early lead, which, despite their best efforts, the Storm just couldn’t run down, recording their first loss for 2023.
THIS WEEKEND
BYE – KING’S BIRTHDAY WEEKEND