PORT Macquarie appeared in several grand finals and emerged with one win in the under-11 boys division at last weekend’s Seaside Classic.
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The under-11 grand final saw two Port Macquarie teams battle each other for bragging rights and it was the Port Macquarie Gold that defeated Port Macquarie Blue 30-29.
Standout performers were Sam Blain, Lucas Scott and Xavier Proud, coach Nick Proud and assistant coach Simon Blain.
The Seaside Classic is the largest odd age basketball carnival on the north where 74 teams competed from Sydney to Byron Bay and out to Tamworth.
Due to limited court space organisers had to knock back about 12 team nominations which makes them confident next year’s carnival with the six-court stadium will be bigger and better.
PMBA had a strong contingency of 13 teams, with several balanced teams in multiple age groups.
We tend to use the carnival to introduce our domestic team players to this rep-style competition and to assist the coaches with the representative junior team selections.
In the under-15 women’s division, the Port Macquarie team was beaten by Tamworth 32-31.
If it was all about winning for us, we’d only have one side.
- John Minihan
After being behind 18-9, they clawed their way back to take the lead, but didn’t have much luck in the last few minutes and went down.
Strong performers over the weekend were Bridget Williams, Monique Rudder and Maddi Baxter.
As well, a number of these girls also played up in the U17 women’s team to assist and Kelly Bowden was terrific in these games.
In the under-15 men’s division, Port Macquarie lost 51-26 to the Newcastle Lakers, with Zac Lawrence, Harry Burton and Matt Strumolo being the standouts for the PMBA team.
Organiser John Minihan said it was a successful week for the club overall.
“We introduce our kids to rep-style basketball in a carnival atmosphere,” he said.
“If it was all about winning, we’d only have one side or stack them all.”
He was hopeful that would continue.
It was the first time Tamworth had competed at the Seaside Classic in a couple of years and Minihan said it was good to see.
They set the standard Port Macquarie hopes to achieve.
“They have their own six-court stadium which is something we will have,” he said.
“The under-11 boys were the standout performers for us and performed above what we expected and it was a good experience for them.”
The Seaside Classic was an opportunity for players to put their name up in lights before representative teams are announced.