Albany girls net country championship

Albany Basketball Association has emerged victorious from the opening weekend of the Basketball WA Country Championships after the under-16 girls demolished their rivals on the way to winning a title in Perth at the weekend.

A strong under-16 girls’ Raiders team went through the regular games undefeated, setting up a grand final contest against Manjimup.

Albany scored the first 14 points in the decider and led 17-1 at half-time on the back of a late three-pointer from Tayeesha Weeden.

From there, Albany controlled the rest of the grand final, racing to 25 points before Manjimup scored their first field goal of the game.

Valerie Corbett led all scorers with 15 points as Albany crushed Manjimup, 41-14, at the final whistle to go through undefeated on their way to winning the under-16 girls’ championship division title.

Jade Dimer (nine points) and Weeden (seven) were also strong contributors in the thumping grand final result.

Albany beat Manjimup by seven points in their first game on Saturday and followed that up with wins over Mandurah (30-16), Geraldton (35-24) and Eaton (27-17) before edging out Bunbury 32-24 in their final qualifier.

Dimer averaged 11.8 points a game at the championships, including a 17-point haul against Bunbury.

The winning side, coached by David Arthur, also contained Casey Griffiths, Isabella De Giambattista, Emma Fleck, Lily Minter, Jaz Breuker and Stephanie Del Borrello.

Albany missed out on reaching the under-16 boys’ championship division grand final by percent-age.

Eaton and Albany each finished with four wins, one loss and a draw, but Eaton’s percentage of 120.51 was higher than Albany’s (114.37).

After four straight wins, Albany drew with Eaton (30-30) and lost to Bunbury by 14 points to finish third.

Liam Murdock averaged 9.5 points a game and was outstanding with 19 points in the draw.

Two losses in their first three games hurt Albany’s under-18 boys’ hopes of reaching the championship division grand final.

Albany lost 18-29 to Bunbury on Saturday and also went down 29-35 to Geraldton on Saturday, but recovered to win four of their six games.

Tyler Willmore shone for the Raiders with 8.17 points a game, while Arthur Jones (6.33 points a game) was also impressive.

Albany finished fifth in the under-18 girls’ championship division, winning two games and losing three.

Losses in their first three qualifying games ended title hopes, but Albany bounced back to easily beat Mandurah by 25 points and Bunbury by one point.