HAMILTON Hurricanes has been crowned state champions after topping the Under-18A Boys Division 2 Basketball Victoria Junior Country Championships in Bendigo at the weekend.

The team opened its account with a 19-59 loss to Ballarat in the first game, before the Hurricanes were edged out by Sale Sonics, 60-64 in round two.

A third straight loss, this time against Wodonga Wolves, 38-64, made for a nervous night sleep on Saturday, as the team needed to find its groove immediately on Sunday.

A 53-51 Division 2 quarter-final win against Southern Peninsula got the team rolling, before Hamilton backed it up with another strong performance, accounting for Pakenham Warriors, 50-43, in the semi-final to progress through to the decider.

It set up a match-up against Echuca Pirates in the final, with Hamilton’s streak extending one more when it counted most, finishing 54-44 victors to claim the championships

An 18-point first period set up the win, as the Hurricanes piled on 23 points to 13 in the last quarter.

Josh Miller topped the scoring with 16 points, while Deacon White and Jack Jennings each put up 13 points in support.

Coach, Adam Jennings said the team had worked hard to get to the final and was glad the group got success.

“It was a massive team effort (in the final), I think we got some really key scoring off Josh Miller, he hit some big three-pointers and Jack Jennings got us off to a fast start in the final,” he said.

“It was a little bit of an unknown, we hadn’t come up against Echuca prior to that, and the boys went out and played their best game of the weekend.

“Bailey Baker was phenomenal with his defence, I placed him on the opposition’s best player and on Sunday he was definitely a big reason of why we won.”

It was a tough start to the campaign for the Hurricanes, but Jennings said he was proud of how the team re-focused and got through to the final.

“Saturday was tough, we faced some pretty big towns with Ballarat, Sale and Wodonga and we just had a chat with the boys to really lock in on our defence,” he said.

“The teams put up some pretty big numbers against us on Saturday, but that was the difference on Sunday, we were very tight.”

Despite winning the Division 2 championship, Jennings said the team did go to Bendigo with the aim of qualifying for the top division.

“We definitely went there with the aim of getting into Division 1,” he said.

“If you finished in the top eight there, you end up in the top division and we needed to win two games to get in.

“On Saturday night we re-assessed our goals and said we wanted to win Division 2, and while we didn’t finish in the top eight, it means we finish ninth in the state, which is a pretty big achievement for a little town like Hamilton.”

As the team needed to turn its form around for finals on Sunday, it was the defence and consistency which had been mentioned, with the latter improving as the games went on.

“We had been focusing on trying to find 40 minutes of consistency,” Jennings said.

“We’d been good in patches and each game on Sunday we were getting closer to that consistent performance.”

It was a bittersweet moment for the coach and some of the players, as they now look to ahead to other opportunities.

“There is a little bit of a sad moment with it as well,” Jennings said.

“For a few of them it ended their junior representative time and I have coached some of them since Under-12s, so obviously I wish them all the best and also good luck to the other Hamilton teams who travel to their country champs across March and April.”