Miners finish 7th at Under 14 Nationals

The under 14 Ballarat Miners boys have returned from Sydney after finishing 7^th at the Basketball Australia under 14 National Club Championships.

The Ballarat Miners played eight games in five days starting with three pool games in two days. In their pool games they defeated Sydney Comments 62-34 and before being defeated by Cockburn Cougars 40-41. The final pool game saw the Ballarat Miners defeat Darwin Cyclones 72-31 which gave them the top spot in the pool after a 3-way tie with Sydney and Cockburn.

Day 3 of the competition saw another double header game with the Ballarat Miners defeating Bankstown Bruins 49-41 before going down to the Rockhampton Rockets 46-58.

Wednesday was a quieter day with just a quarter-final game against Nunawading Spectres which saw the Miners going down 46-68 to the eventual winners of the tournament.

The final day of play saw the Miners play in classification games to determine their overall standing at the tournament. The first game of the day the Miners went down to the local host team Hills Hornets 47-56 before ending the tournament on high defeating Woodville Warriors 70-61 to finish 7^th out of 24.

Ballarat Miners under 14 Head Coach Matt Sheehan said, “The boys have played so well this week and to come away 7th in Australia is a massive credit to the boys with the way they played, the resilience showed and the bond they have formed for life over the week’s campaign.”

Sheehan added, “The support also over the week from the Ballarat community has been fabulous and the families that travelled to Sydney to support the kids have been amazing.”

The tournament saw Ballarat Miners player Lucas Byrne score 178 points averaging 22.25 per game with the next best being Oliver Cape with 88 tournament points averaging 11 per game.

This tournament formally ends the 2021/2022 representative season for this under-14 Miners team who competed at the Basketball Victoria Junior Country Championships, VJBL and the Nationals.