Over the weekend, Basketball ACT hosted its Second Annual Easter Invitational Tournament. The tournament played host to 31 teams who participated across six divisions with teams traveling from Victoria and NSW to compete.

Basketball ACT’s Head of High Performance, Phil Brown, said the tournament was a huge success in terms of numbers but also playing standards.

“It was great to have two Canberra teams; the Gunners U14 and U16 Boys competing in their respective Grand Finals with the Canberra U16 boys winning in overtime against a strong Maffra Team.”

The tournament would not have been possible if not for the contribution of our referees, bench team and casual staff members who worked across the three days.

Photo by MVP Photography

“I would like to publicly thank all our referees who did a great job officiating games over the Easter weekend and also undertaking bench duty across over 80 games. In particular a huge thankyou to Marlene Leonard who coordinated the referee roster in addition to coaching the referees,” said Phil Brown.

“Callum Smith (Belconnen) and Sharon Eldridge (AIS), who were our MSO’s for the tournament, were absolutely terrific in ensuring the tournament ran smoothly and to schedule all weekend”.

Receiving an influx of positive feedback from the weekend, Phil is confident that the tournament will continue to grow and that they will be able to attract more teams in the future.

Photo by MVP Photography

“The feedback from all participating teams has been fantastic with the interstate teams indicating they want to return to Canberra in 2020,” said Brown.

“I am optimistic that Basketball ACT can continue to build the Easter Invitational Tournament into a prestigious junior high performance tournament on the Australian Basketball Calendar. We have identified some areas we can improve on and have already started work to make the tournament an even better one in 2020.”

Congratulations to everyone involved for a fantastic weekend!

Easter Tournament Champions from each division are:
U12 Girls: Kilsyth Cobras
U12 Boys: Eltham Wildcats
U14 Girls: Melbourne Tigers
U14 Boys: Waverley Falcons
U16 Girls: Nunawading Spectres
U16 Boys: Canberra Gunners