Round 14 was a big one for the Storm in Big V Basketball, as we went 5 wins from 5 starts for the weekend.
Championship Men
Bellarine 87 d Keysborough 77
(Max Kos 23, Rohan Jarvie 16)
Our Championship Men pulled off a big result on Saturday night, knocking off top 4 side Keysborough at Keysborough.
Acting Captain Max Kos again led from the front, with 23 points for the contest, whilst Rohan Jarvie finished with 16 and 10 boards for the night.
After a very even first quarter, the Storm began to move away from the Cougars at the start of the second term, with Bryce Cashman prominent early in the term and Jye Boyle provided some fire from the bench to have the Storm in control by 6 points at the main break.
As expected, Keysborough weren’t about to lie down and came out with renewed endeavour in the third, taking just 4 minutes of play to erase the Storm lead and hit the front.
However, the Storm dug deep and with Rohan Jarvie, Max Kos and Marko Vekic scoring multiple times from there, they were able to regain the lead by the final break, by 3 points.
It was all Max Kos in the last as the Skipper drained 16 points for the term, as he got great support on the glass from Rohan Jarvie, Marko Vekic and Seb Thomason, to set the Storm on the path to win number 3 for the season.
Division 1 Women
Bellarine 72 d Chelsea 69
(Bh’rea Griffin 18, Chantelle Hall 15)
A closer than expected result against Chelsea and a double loss on the road for Warrnambool, has seen our Division 1 Women move a game clear on the top of the table.
The Storm didn’t have things all their own way in this one, as the pesky Gulls stuck around for most of the match, in fact leading for much of the day.
However, when it mattered, the Storm hit their straps, gaining the lead via a Chantelle Hall jump shot midway through the third term and from there, the Storm were able to hold off the home side for the rest of the contest.
Hall was important at both ends of the court for the Storm, with her 15 points to go with her 10 boards for the game, whilst Bh’rea Griffin led the scoring with 18 points, also dishing off 5 assists for the game, to lead from the front.
Youth League 2 Men
Bellarine 77 d North East Bushrangers 61
(Vinnie Whelan 18, Harry Crane 17)
In his 50th game for the Storm, Vinnie Whelan led the way to a nice win for our Youth League Men on Saturday night, with 18 points and 15 boards for the game.
In what feels like a recurring storyline, the Storm got off to a nice start, outplaying the Bushrangers to set up a very handy 12 point buffer at the quarter time break.
However, as has been the case a few times this season, one quarter, the second, looked like it might again see the Storm pay the penalty, as the Bushrangers went about dismantling the Storm lead and set up their own of 4 points at the half.
The great news is, that it was a different Storm that came out after the half, as they were all over the visitors defensively and up front, finding a number of different avenues to impact the scoreboard.
Harry Crane showed that he is going to be a handful for defenders in coming rounds, as he put up 7 points in a row for the Storm at the tail of the third, which helped set up a 10 point lead with one to play.
The last term saw the Storm hold out the Bushrangers with Jack Davies prominent early in the term, whilst Harry Crane continued to score.
Vinnie Whelan provided the highlight in the last, with a big one handed jam to pretty much put the full stop on the Storm win by 16 points.
Youth League Women
Saturday
Bellarine 84 d Albury/Wodonga 41
(Summer Field 32, Piper Copeland 13)
Sunday
Bellarine 85 d Albury/Wodonga 40
(Alicia Field 22, Ash Withers 16)
The moral of the story for our Youth League Women on the weekend was – If one Field don’t get ya, the other will!
On Saturday night, Summer Field put on a scoring clinic against the undermanned Bandits, with 32 points for the game, along with a big 9 assists, to completely dismantle the opposition.
With a 25 point lead by half time, the game was pretty much done for the evening and with another game on Sunday, Coach David Smith got the opportunity to give his bench a bit of extra court time in the second half.
Ash Withers was also proving to be a big headache with her height and strength proving important, with her 11 points and 12 boards on the night, getting good support from Eliza Haugh who is turning into a rebounding juggernaut right now, with yet another double figure rebound count.
One of the beneficiaries of the ability to rotate that Saturday night provided, was Emily Dunne who ended with 11 points at a clip of 80%.
Sunday’s game was almost a carbon copy of Saturday night, with the Bandits suffering the additional fate of losing 2 of their 7 available players to injury during the match, reducing them to just 5 fit players to run out a fair portion of the second half.
This time around, it was Alicia Field who took control of the game, to finish with 22 points and again Ash Withers was prominent with 16 and 13 to make it a big weekend for her.
As opposed to Saturday night, Eliza Haugh was proving a headache up forward with 13 including 3 of 4 from outside the arc.
The weekend’s efforts all but lock up top spot for our Youth League Women for the second successive season.
THIS WEEKEND
SATURDAY 8th July 2023
YL2 Women
Bellarine v Sherbrooke @ Bellarine Secondary College 4:00pm
YL2 Men
Bellarine v Sunbury @ Bellarine Secondary College 6:00pm
Division 1 Women
Bellarine v Mildura @ Mildura Hothouse 6:00pm
Championship Men
Bellarine v Sunbury @ Bellarine Secondary College 8:00pm
SUNDAY 9th July 2023
Championship Men
Bellarine v Wyndham @ Eagle Stadium 3:00pm