HAMILTON Hurricanes’ youngest squads, the Under-12 Boys and Under-12 Girls, performed well at the Junior Country Championships in Bendigo last weekend.
Under-12 Boys
THE Hurricanes were drawn against Ballarat in round one and the team came away with a victory, 37-29, thanks to Connor Crawford (16) and Manaia Bremner (10) each posting double figure scores to get their championships underway.
MAFFRA entered the round two clash with the Hurricanes after accounting for Wonthaggi by 24 points in round one, but they were defeated by the finely tuned Hamilton team, 29-27, as Crawford (10) put up another double figure score to lead the Hurricanes to successive victories.
THE final game on Friday was against Wonthaggi and the Hurricanes made it three from three after Crawford (12) and Cooper Kearney (16) dominated the boards to see the Hurricanes win their way into the top division for the remainder of the tournament.
SATURDAY dawned with the Hurricanes drawn against Geelong United and despite leading by six-points at the break, the Hurricanes couldn’t stem the flow of the opposition in the second half, fading to lose 23-29, as Harry Manley stepped up to post 11 points.
THE second game had the Hurricanes play Pakenham, but the ball didn’t bounce Hamilton’s way and despite winning the second half, the Hurricanes fell, 29-34 with Archie McCulloch leading the way with seven points.
WITH a win-loss record of three wins and two losses, the Hurricanes were pitted against Melton in the classification final, and the Hurricanes came away with a victory, 43-23, as Cooper Kearney (17) dominated.
Under-12 Girls
FRIDAY for the Under-12 Girls was not as successful, but the squad played some great basketball in winning the round three game against Swan Hill, 45-22 after dropping games to Pakenham (29-46) and Warrnambool (22-34).
These results meant that the Hurricanes were drawn in division two for the remainder of the tournament and Saturday the team got off to a great start in defeating Colac convincingly, 48-23, with Poppy Ann Shepherd (10) leading the scoring.
ROUND two on Saturday and the Hurricanes lost to Wonthaggi, 38-43, with Shepherd again posting 10 points, while round three saw the Hurricanes dominate Southern Peninsula to record their best win of the weekend, 39-8, as Tatum Bell top scored with 11.
PORTLAND awaited in the quarter-final and with the scores tied at the half, 12-12, the Hurricanes needed to find another gear to advance further, but it wasn’t to be as Portland cruised away to win 31-26.
