THE HBA winter premiers were crowned on Wednesday night, with St Mary’s Black and Minders winning the division one titles.

St Mary’s Black took on St Mary’s Orange in the Division 1 Women’s decider, and it was Black which burst out of the blocks, jumping out to a 14-6 lead before a timeout was called with seven minutes to play in the first half.

Black was able to transition and continually find an open player, putting up points regularly to go into half time leading, 18-10.

Elise Thurman put up eight points in the first half for Black, while Grace Cleaver matched the output for Orange.

Orange closed the deficit by a point in the first 10 minutes of the second half, getting to within four points with as many minutes to play, as Black maintained possession and worked the ball around late to eventually claim a 35-27 victory.

Black’s Ruby Cleaver was the grand final MVP, while Elise Thurman top-scored for the winners with 12 points, while Grace Cleaver finished with 14 points for Orange.

St Mary’s Black coach, Casey Rook said

“I was fairly confident, the girls have been playing fairly well all season and it is nice to see them get their reward for the season they’ve had,” she said.

“Our team is very young, most of our girls are 15 or under, only two are older than 15.

“The game plan was to play like we have all season.”

Div 1 Men

MINDERS was able to break through to claim victory against the reigning premier, St Mary’s Orange, in the Division 1 Men’s grand final.

Orange struggled to match the Minders from the outset, falling behind by seven points after just five minutes, as Minders pushed the lead out to 23-11 just past the midway point of the first half, before Orange clawed the game back and went into half time with all the momentum and trailing by just three points.

A three-pointer from Deacon White levelled the scores at 33 apiece five minutes into the second half, before Angus Hayden-Simpson answered with a maximum soon after, and with five minutes to play, four points was the margin.

Minders was able to push the lead out again and went on to win, 61-46.

Hayden-Simpson put up five three-pointers for the game, while Minders’ Josh Miller put up 22 points, earning him grand final MVP honours.

The decider also saw Karatau Keightley return to the team for the grand final, despite moving to New Zealand two months ago.

Minders coach, Scott Miller said it was a strong performance from the team.

“I felt like we were in control early, but I knew they’d come, they always do, but we still had the lead,” he said.

“We always managed to just get that basket we needed, a couple of crucial big shots which kept us just in front.”