Juniors take centre court in deciders

LAST weekend was the final round of the Gold Coast Basketball Junior League.

More than 190 teams played in the competitions, from under-9s through to under-20s.

A bustling Carrara Indoor Sports Stadium saw great crowds supporting our best young basketballers over three days.

There were epic contests, with several overtime finishes.

Panthers d Magpies 32-21 (Layla Cameron, 11 points) Celtics d Heat 16-15 (Jade Sherrington, 16) Panthers Blue d Panthers Black 39-21 (Giselle Arona, 16)

PBC Magpies Mason, 16) PBC Black d 31-24 (Skye

Blades d TSS 47-40 (Hudson MacMahon, 17) Varsity d Heat 55-49 (Blake Gamble, 19); Panthers d Heat 47 -32 (Josh Wolff, 16) Celtics d Heat 42-40 (Alexander Psaras, 25) Heat d Magpies 47-41 (Sam Scott, 16) Heat d Panthers 63-26 (Benaiah Ramsey, 22)

North Gold Coast Seahawks will be holding their finals this week and I’ll break it down in next week’s article. The under-13 Division 1 Celtics came up against the very strong Heat team in the final. Heat looked to have the more talent of the teams but the Celtics stayed in the game on the back of Xavier Cashman (13 points) and Liam Casey (12). With three seconds remaining in the game, the Heat boys looked to have it wrapped up but Cooper Want pushed the ball and was fouled. With no time on the clock, he threw up a half-court shot. Being the last game at that time slot, the whole stadium watched as Cooper made his way to the free throw line. Makes the first (crowd roars), makes the second (crowd erupts), then hits the third (mayhem) as we go to overtime. I’ve never seen a kid with such a cool head. Needless to say the game was a classic, with Celtics getting the win in double overtime. Cue celebration and tears. Cooper, you just earned yourself a nickname … Clutch.