JUNIOR basketballers flocked to town throughout the weekend to compete in the Portland Basketball Association’s junior South West Classic tournament, hosted in Portland, Heywood and Port Fairy.

It was a highly successful weekend for teams and the junior committee, with six local sides making their grand finals while three took out the entire tournament.

The Portland Coasters’ under-14 boys, under-18 girls and under-18 boys all managed to secure grand final wins on Sunday after impressive runs throughout the three-day competition.

It was a thrilling win for the 14 boys in division one where they secured a two-point win against Warrnambool, 39-37, with Oscar Elford contributing an impressive 21 points.

The under-18 boys had a convincing grand final victory against Ararat, 57-36, with Angus Impey slotting 21 points.

It was the under-18 girls who had the biggest grand final win, putting on a dominant performance to earn a 68-23 victory against Maryborough with solid scoring contributions from Tyleah Barr and Millie Ferguson.

The under-14 girls, under-16 girls and under-16 boys also performed strongly to earn a spot in the grand final and finishing with runner-up honours.

Across the tournament more than 600 basketballers hit the court at the Portland Basketball Stadium and schools located throughout Portland, Heywood and Port Fairy.

Junior committee member Anna Impey said they couldn’t have asked for a better showing or tournament.

“We had a great weekend,” she said.

“In terms of success everything went well – we ran on time, associations worked together, volunteers just got the job done and players had competitive and fun games and crowds were huge… and loud!

“From a committee perspective it takes a ton of work but it's so rewarding at the same time...it's a big weekend and you just run on adrenaline and the excitement that comes from our players. Our families are more than happy to just be allocated jobs and are continually asking to help – which makes the weekend so much easier and less stressful.”

For the first time ever the association had to use a court in Port Fairy to cater for numbers which Impey said was important to ensure a smooth operation for the tournament.

“We had a lot of positive feedback which was good considering it was the first time we'd ran all courts on a Friday and included the Port Fairy court....it also enabled us to finish at good times each day and not keep teams too late,” she said.

“To run a home tournament is amazing for our teams, they love it and they just feed off each other. They have each other’s backs and it's great to see them all supporting each other.”