MacKillop Saints dominates the competition and wins the 3v3 Basketball tournament against Taminmin College.
From the get go, the Saints had to prove themselves as they played against older students, with the Saints teams being made from years 7, 8 and 9 and Taminmin’s team being made from years 9 and 10. This didn’t stop the younger boys from showing what they had as the first round was won by our year 7’s, Team Tall with a staggering 22-0. Next round followed with a win by 2 points by The Sharks from the Saints, this game was a highly physical game as both sides battled it out and many fouls were called for both teams. Game 3 turned in to a marathon as the game went in to triple over-time for the Saints and Taminmin. At this stage a crowd had gathered to cheer on the Saints as they drew at the end of each over-time, including an after the siren free-throw by Taminmin to draw the game. It wasn’t until the final 30 seconds in the third over-time, where Jeremy, Xander and Aaron used a variety of moves and teamwork to find the gaps in the tight Taminmin defence and score a mid-range jumper, pushing them forward to the semi-finals.
The semi-finals showed promising for The Saints as they made up 3 of the final 4 teams remaining. The Saints year 7 team, Team Tall played against the year 9 team, The Sharks in the first semi-final game and Team Tall lead the battle for the majority of the game. Until Taj, Lochlan and Travis found their footing in the final minutes of the game to score some physical rebounds and accurate 2 pointers to win by 4 points. Exhausted by their previous triple-overtime game against Taminmin, Xander, Aaron and Jeremy played once again against Taminmin and focused on their defensive plays. Breaking the game down in to a low scoring game ment the boys could take their time on offence and reserve their energy. This showed to pay off as the boys came out on top of Taminmin by 2 points, pushing them in to the grand-final.
The grand-final showed to be challenging for both teams as they were fatigued by their previous games with almost no rest between games, yet they soldiered on. It was a close and physical game with both teams being called for offensive fouls. At half time, The Sharks had to call in a substitute for one of their players as they had injured their hand during a struggle for a rebound, so one of the year 7 boys from Team Tall came in and finished off the second half with them. The Sharks kept the lead in the final minutes of the game to secure their title as tournament champions. Aaron Rafferty secured the title of MVP throughout the tournament due to his top notch defense and space creating plays on offense. All of the boys and girls from MacKillop Saints and Taminmin College showed great sportsmanship throughout the entirety of the tournament and displayed cohesive and impressive team plays. Taminmin and MacKillop will play against each other again in the following weeks and you can tell by the competitiveness that both teams will be eager to take the title.
