Victoria’s dominance of the under-20 girls national basketball titles has continued with a Victorian team winning the Arthur McRobbie Trophy for an eighth straight year.
The Victorians set the tone early in the tournament winning all their pool matches by at least 10 points.
The closest result was a 10 point win against the New South Wales team, which they would face a second time in the grand final.
The Victorians started slow in the grand final, trailing 30-29 at half time, but stepped it up in the second half.
Werribee junior Maddison Rocci did the damage early in the second half, to help set up a match winning lead for the Victorians.
Once in control of the match, the Victorians put their foot down to win easily, 85-60.
Chantel Horvat top scored with 17 points, while Craigieburn’s Ezi Magbegor (16), Kiera Rowe (15) and Rocci (12) all scored double figures.
The strength of the Victorian side across the whole tournament was the even spread across the board.
Every player got on the court each game, with different players stepping up and contributing when needed.
All but one player got on the scoreboard in the grand final, with most players getting on the scoreboard every game.
Magbegor, who was part of the winning Australian under-17 World Championships side, averaged 12.5 points and 11.5 rebounds per game.
It was a second straight under-20 national title Chloe Bibby, Chantel Horvat, Sunbury’s Courtenay Wragg, Whittlesea’s Chloe Molloy, Greenvale’s Monqiue Andriuolo.
Monegeetta’s Kara Tessari, Craigieburn’s Magbegor, and Rowe were all part of Victoria’s winning under-18 team last year.
First year coach Zoe Carr said it was a proud moment to coach the side to a national title.
“I had it as a player and now I get to have it as a coach and it’s really special. I’m just really proud of those girls.
“We always know if a team wearing a V is in a final, everyone other than the people in navy blue want us to lose.
“The hype and the tension and the emotion – we knew it was going to be there and we were prepared for it.
“We knew if we rode through it and took the emotion out of the game and put it strictly to basketball that we had a really good chance.”
The Victorian’s took home three of the four titles on offer over the week, losing one game for the whole tournament.
Both the Ivor Burge men’s and women’s sides took home the titles, going through undefeated.
Doreen’s Lachlan Brannelly was part of the men’s Ivor Burge team.
The men’s under-20 side had to settle for bronze after a loss in the semi finals.
Craigieburn’s Ovie Magbegor scored eight points in the bronze medal match.
