HAMILTON Basketball Association (HBA) stages its annual Junior Tournament this weekend with organisers having filled the carnival roster with 88 teams coming from across the Western District to battle it out in the first representative tournament of the season.

HBA Junior Representative squad co-ordinator, Peta Richards, is looking forward to the carnival with 16 different divisions across age groups from Under-12 to Under-18 in both boys and girls.

“We had a total of 135 entries this year, but we had to whittle that number down to 88, as we are at capacity despite adding a fourth venue to stage the event at this year,” Richards said.

“The tournament will be staged over Saturday and Sunday and games will be played at Hamilton Indoor Leisure and Aquatic Centre, Hamilton College, Monivae College and we’ve added Baimbridge College to our list of venues this year.

The Hamilton Hurricanes will field teams in all divisions except for the Under-18A and Under-18B Girls and the Under-18B Boys divisions.

“Kids at that age just have so much going on in their lives that they cannot commit to playing squad basketball while having to juggle jobs, study and a myriad of other responsibilities,” Richards said.

“We have great teams representing the Hurricanes in the rest of the divisions and the players all have a great set of skill levels that they will showcase.

Hamilton is the first tournament of the season, and it attracts entries from Warrnambool, Ballarat, Portland, Horsham, Koroit, Colac, Port Fairy, and Maryborough.