Club the state’s greatest

RISING basketballers the Surfcoasters have been crowned as the best regional club in Victoria after an outstanding run at the state championships.

The club won the under-14 girls and under-18 boys and placed in a series of other divisions during the competition in Bendigo this weekend.

The combined results meant it won the Max Bowman Memorial Shield as the outstanding club at the tournament.

Xavier Stanley shot the lights out in the under-18 final, netting 26 points — including four three-pointers — as the Surfcoasters topped Bendigo Phoenix by 22 points.

He was supported by 10 points from Liam Afica, while Spencer Maegher held down the middle, playing as centre.

“The boys just clicked together, they wanted to win and they played a lot better than they did early on (in the tournament),” coach Mark Gabell said. “A lot of those boys have played together for the last few years in the local comp, they all know each other and they all play well together and it was the last chance a lot of them would play together at a junior level.”

In the under-14 girls final, 17 points from Indiana Schwarz was enough to hold off Geelong YMCA by just three points. Taylah Richards (12 points) led the way for YMCA.

Other local winners at the tournament were Try Boys Bears and Geelong Sharks in the under-12 girls Division 1 and 2 respectively.

The shield win was a first for the Surfcoasters, which Gabell put down to the teams jelling together on the court.

“You try and take the teams that have been playing together for a while and the coaches were the same as they have had all the way through,” he said. “It was pretty amazing, it was a big highlight for the club.”