Crees catches the eye at titles

BASKETBALL FAR North talent Tamuri Wigness and Alex Davies racked up the big statistics at the 2018 Australian Under-18 Basketball Championships but it was Mossman’s Ethan Crees who impressed Basketball Queensland’s state performance manager.

Far North teenagers Davies, Summah Evans, Michael Selsby, Sarah Heard, Crees and Wigness represented Queensland North at the tournament in Geelong, Victoria, which wrapped up on Sunday.

After claiming a silver medal in 2017, Queensland North sent seven bottom age players in the boys, finishing sixth overall with the championships a building campaign for next year for the youthful squad.

Davies, nine points and nine rebounds a game, and Wigness, 20 points and seven assists, stuffed the stat sheet across the tournament but Brady Walmsley, Basketball Queensland’s state performance manager of North Queensland, valued what Crees contributed.

“I really liked the way Ethan went about it, there are probably more talented kids than him but he plays with a hard mentality,” Walmsley said.

“That allows your group to always be competitive when you have a player like that.

“Tamuri, Michael and Alex did their thing that stands out but Ethan contributed really positively as well.

“Ethan is a super athlete and a major competitor.”

Crees, a Cairns Taipans academy member, averaged EMERGING: Ethan Crees. four points and three rebounds an outing as he was deployed in both forward positions.

Walmsley, who doubles as Gladstone’s QBL coach, described Selsby and Wigness as “electric” and said Davies has turned himself from a second option on the squad to a “bona fide standout”.

Davies will have a big decision to make in the near future with the teen also a talented footballer with AFL Cairns club the Manunda Hawks.

The Queensland North girls finished seventh overall with an injury curtailing the influence of Cairns Dolphin Evans.

“Summah had a disrupted week with an injury,” Walmsley said. “Had it not been for the injury, I was really excited about what we could have seen from Summah. Sarah Heard improved as the week went on and contributed.”

In the finals, WA Metro claiming the Under-18 men’s gold medal for the first time since 2000 while Vic Metro won the Under-18 women’s for the fourth time in five years.

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