By ADEM SARICAOGLU
THE Keilor Thunder’s under-18 boy’s team enjoyed a successful long weekend over the Queen’s Birthday break, taking out the B-Grade title at the 42nd Ballarat Junior Basketball Tournament.
The Thunder managed to win two out of three pool games before eventually qualifying through to the semi-final stage against Melton last Monday.
After a close first half the Thunder managed to kick away and score a convincing win over Melton, setting up a grand final date with Frankston, which Keilor went on to win 48-33.
Coach Nathan Heywood said it was a huge team effort both on the court in the grandstands that helped get the Thunder over the line against seven other teams within the competition.
“Overall, I think it was a great team effort for the boys to go through,” Heywood said.
“And when I say team effort, it was right through from the parents giving up their weekend and getting all the boys to the games.
“The level of support we had from everyone within Keilor actually sticking around to watch was really good and it showed some really great club spirit throughout the weekend.”
Heywood said his team made the trip to Ballarat expecting to go well, but had mainly only hoped to play good basketball that would hold them in good stead for the remainder of their season proper.
“It wasn’t a surprise for us to go all the way – we certainly knew that we had that in us,” he said.
“Expectations were certainly to go out there and I guess have a bit of fun and continue to apply the principles of basketball that we’ve been training for.
“So it really got us going for the rest of the season proper.”
Currently fifth in the Victorian Junior Basketball League’s Junior League Two, Heywood hopes his team’s exploits in Ballarat will now propel the Thunder to greater heights this season.
“It’s a real confidence booster for the boys to be able to execute our game style and game plan,” Heywood said.
“Hopefully we can run through with this for the remaining eight games of our season proper.”
