Australian Basketball Schools Championships: All the news and analysis from day 2
A young star put up the tournament’s best performance to date in another action packed day at the ABSC’s. That, plus our judges tell you the top five boys and girls performers.
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The finals picture has become clearer at the Australian Basketball Schools Championships following an action-packed day two of the tournament on the Gold Coast.
Our News Corp judges were sideline for every game in the championships division on day two and have run the rule over their starting five from both the boys and girls competitions.
Check out the lists below:
TOP FIVE MEN:
Cameron Pender – (Lake Ginninderra College)
Everyone is talking about Roman Siulepa, but Pender is the most-complete player on the Gold Coast. Combines size, speed, strength and smarts and led his team to a tough-as-nails 105-85 win over plucky Rowville Secondary College with a remarkable near-triple-double of 49-points, 15 rebounds and nine assists.
Roman Siulepa – (Brisbane State High School)
Siulepa continued his standout form on Tuesday, dropping a game-high 28 points and adding eight rebounds and five assists in Brisbane State High’s dominant 103-53 victory over Newington College. The gifted 15-year-old had 20 points at halftime, and despite only adding eight points in the second half, he was still the game’s best performer.
Aiden Fitzgerald – (Willeton Senior High School)
The versatile wing was the prime reason the WA school was able to flip a 13-point deficit into a five-point victory over Concordia College. Everything good Willeton did came at the hand of Fitzgerald, who helped himself to a 26-point, 15-rebound double-double, topped off with a block and a steal.
Paddy D’Arcy (Concordia College)
Fitzgerald’s Willeton took the chocolates, but Concordia’s D’Arcy had himself a night with 31 points to go with five rebounds and three dimes. The two guns went shot for shot at times as their teams battled out a 75-70 result.
Joel Foxwell – (Rowville Secondary College)
There’s a reason NBL eyes are on this kid – and it’s not just because his brother is a development player with South East Melbourne. Like an energiser bunny at both ends of the floor, never gives up on a play or on the game, as he showed in his side’s loss to Lake Ginninderra with a couple of late hits as he tried in vain to save his team. Finished with 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists in a great all-round effort.
WOMEN TOP 5:
Jessica Petrie (Lake Ginninderra College) v Templestowe College: 23pts, 9/10 FG, 19 reb., 3 asst.
Game-high 23 points to go with a ridiculous 19 rebounds. Despite piling on the points on day one Petrie had struggled with accuracy from the field. That changed against Templestowe, going 9-10.
Isla Juffermans (Lake Ginninderra College) v Templestowe College: 18 pts, 9/14 FG, 16 reb., 2 asst.
Another dominant display from the Australian representative centre, playing the perfect foil to Petrie with 18 points and 16 rebounds, second only to her teammate for the match.
Sienna Lehmann (Immanuel College) v St Luke’s: 23pts, 10/17 FG, 9 reb. 6 asst.
Lehmann led the way for Immanuel in their 26-point win over St Luke’s, top scoring with 23 points while laying off a game-high six assists and bringing down a team-high nine rebounds. Complete performance.
Felicity Henderson (St Luke’s Grammar School) v Immanuel College: 21 pts, 9/21 FG, 11 reb.
The St Luke’s captain lost no admirers after her toiling effort in the loss to Immanuel. She topped 20 points and led the match with 11 rebounds, from almost 39 minutes on-court – the most of any player.
Sharni Reisinger (Brisbane State High School) v Willetton Senior High School: 16pts, 7/21 FG, 11 reb., 3 asst
Reisinger helped Brisbane SHS mount a second-half comeback that fell just-short against Willetton. Her 16 points was a match-high, as were her 11 rebounds and three assists.
TOURNAMENT MVP ELECT POURS IN REMARKABLE 49-POINT NEAR-TRIPLE-DOUBLE
Michael Randall
The performance of the tournament so far belongs to Lake Ginninderra powerhouse Cameron Pender.
Pender has been the best player at the Australian Schools Championships and he underlined that with a remarkable 49-point, 15-rebound, nine-assist near-triple double in the Lakers’ 105-85 win over Victoria’s Rowville Secondary College.
Brisbane State High School’s 15-year-old dunking dynamo Roman Siulepa has attracted the headlines but Pender is arguably already the tournament’s MVP and perhaps its most-imposing player.
Don’t let the final score sway you, the basketball giants were pushed by the emergent Rowville for most of the game as the two teams fought out the tournament’s most interesting contest.
In a game of ebbs and flows, the Lakers looked to have established a winning lead midway through the third quarter, before Rowville roared back into the contest.
The two teams went back and forth but Rowville couldn’t quite overtake the ACT team, which turned on the afterburners with a 36-20 fourth quarter that blew it out of the water.
Pender and 213cm teammate Centre of Excellence teammate Bowyn Beatty operated beautifully in the two-man game, that pair putting the game to bed with a delicious give and go which the former ended with a tomahawk jam.
Beatty was close to a triple-double himself, ripping down 19 boards to go with 17 points and adding eight assists as his height proved a massive problem for the smaller Rowville. Lachlan Smith had 17 points and nine rebounds and showed off his hops with a series of big throwdowns, while Frank Afor had 15.
For Rowville, Joel Foxwell played like his life depended on it, scrapping for every single loose ball and fighting it out with a team-high 23 points to go with seven rebounds, six assists and six steals. Corey Hastings added 20.
DAUGHTER OF NBL GREAT HELPS LAKE GINNINDERRA COLLEGE STAMP WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION FAVOURITISM
Matt Logue
Jessica Petrie – the daughter of NBL great Anthony Petrie, has put on a show to help stamp Lake Ginninderra College as the clear Women’s Championship favourites following a commanding 80-41 win over Templestowe College.
The blockbuster clash was circled pre-game, with Lake Ginninderra’s stars Petrie and rising Australian centre Isla Juffermans coming up against Templestowe’s WNBL development player in Lily Carmody.
In the end, the girls from the ACT proved far too good for their Victorian rivals in a standout display of school basketball.
Petrie, who is also the daughter of WNBL champion Sarah (Nee Berry), finished with a game-high 23 points.
This included an impressive nine of ten from the field.
She also added a whopping 19 rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Lake Ginninderra looked a class above Templestowe, with three players scoring in double figures.
These included Juffermans (18 points and 16 rebounds) and captain Maley Cunningham had 12 points and eight rebounds.
Templestowe star guard Carmody, who is an WNBL development player with the Melbourne Boomers, had a quiet game offensively with three points.
The gun guard may not have fired offensively, but she was still effective with six rebounds and four steals.
In the other Women’s Championship Division clash, Willetton State High School surged to a comfortable 68-57 win over Brisbane State High School.
BERWICK STAR PUTS TEAM FIRST IN QUEST FOR U17S GLORY
Callum Dick
Berwick College point guard Luke Fennell is a standout in a team of stars but it’s a national title that’s driving the U17 Division 1 boys’ leading pointscorer on the Gold Coast this week.
Fennell uncorked a stunning 33-point performance in Berwick’s second game of the tournament on Tuesday morning as the Victorian school knocked off Lowanna College 70-48.
But he sat out the entire fourth quarter of the afternoon’s 79-25 demolition of would-be division rivals The Scots College, though still finished with a team-leading 16 points to his name.
The win ensures Berwick enters the finals as the undisputed number one seed out of Pool A and Fennell said his mind was on the marathon, not the sprint, when it came to getting the most out of himself at the championships.
“I’ve come back from an injury recently so I’m just resting it whenever I can,” he said.
“I had shin splints about three months ago and it came back so I’ve had to reset and do (the rehab) right this time.”
With a prospective division MVP up for grabs few would begrudge Fennell for hogging court time. But the team-first mentality which permeates through the close-knit Berwick boys keeps the star guard focused on what is important.
“Whatever the coach needs me to do – if he needs me to rest, I’ll rest. I’m happy to sit on the bench and cheer my team on as well, it’s just as much fun,” Fennell said.
What loomed as Berwick’s greatest test of the tournament so-far instead turned into a one-sided affair, as the fancied Scots College had no answers for Fennell’s side.
Callum McDonald (11 points) and Heath McPherson (10 points) also hit double digits in the comprehensive 54-point rout that sent a warning to the rest of the division – Berwick means business.
But that doesn’t make them favourites, Fennell says.
“I hope so – but anyone can come out and get us on any given day,” he said.
“We’re looking forward to whatever challenge comes at us.
“We don’t really know many of the other teams here. We know one school, Rowville, who we’ve beaten a couple of times. But I’m really not sure (who the challengers are).
“We thought (Scots) would be our toughest game … but we just came out so strong.”
RETIRED TEACHER SIGNING OFF AFTER 30th CHAMPS
He’s the most experienced school-age coach at the national championships this week and once it wraps, that will be all she wrote for Jeff Henderson.
The John Paul U15 Girls Division 1 coach officially retired last Friday and this, his 30th national championships, will be his final stint on the bench.
Henderson was at the helm during the school’s glory years, when John Paul was touted as arguably the best basketball school in the country off the back of senior male and female national titles in 2002-03.
When you’re searching your memory to recall the number of national championships the school has won during your 38-year tenure, you know it’s been a good run.
“I think all up we’ve got about 10 or 12 national championships,” Henderson recalled.
“There was a time when others – not me, others – said that we were the premiere basketball school in Australia.”
This year he’s stepped somewhat out of his comfort zone, taking over a star-studded group of U15 girls that he believes could deliver the school its next senior national championship in a few years’ time.
There’s still plenty of water to run under the bridge before then, however the modern day group has all the makings of another John Paul success story.
Led by the division’s leading scorer Isabella Mirkovic, John Paul rolled Luther College 82-38 in their opening game on day two to move to 3-0 ahead of an afternoon grudge match against local rivals Marsden State High School.
Mirkovic entered the game averaging 30.5 points and did that no harm with another 31 next to her name.
“Izzy … points find her, she doesn’t have to go looking for them,” Henderson said.
“She’s one of those aggressive guards who wants to get to the hoop. She’s pretty hard to contain and unless you put someone pretty special on her she’s going to get (at least) 20 points, maybe more.
“Like any good player she wants to be out there all the time; she wants to lead her team and I think she does an excellent job of that. But we’re not a one-player team by any stretch.”
At the defensive end stands 13-year-old Olivia Olechnowicz, who could be one of the most complete defenders in the division despite giving away almost two years to some rivals.
“You can give Olivia any defensive assignment and that girl she’s on will know she’s played a game of basketball,” Henderson said.
Knock off their Brisbane rivals on Tuesday afternoon and John Paul will be the out-and-out favourite to take home the division.
And though he won’t be there beyond this year, Henderson hopes the future proves even brighter for this group of talented teens.
“I would love to be there in two or three years time when they really shine,” he said.
“Someone else will come in, take them on board and hopefully in two or three years we’re back in that national final again.”
NZ’S GREATEST BASKETBALLER HAILS ABSC TALENT PATHWAY
Hillcrest Christian College (QLD) – 59 def Rowville Secondary College (VIC) – 55
Pero Cameron, the man named New Zealand’s most influential basketballer ever, has hailed the Australian Schools Championships the perfect pathway for aspiring players to achieve their hoops dreams.
The legendary Kiwi played 130 NBL games with the New Zealand Breakers and Gold Coast Blaze.
Now the FIBA Hall of Famer is coaching the Hillcrest Christian College team at the Australian School Championships on the Gold Coast.
Cameron rode every possession like an expecting father on Tuesday morning as his Hillcrest side held on to defeat Rowville by just four points. Amid all the excitement of a thrilling win, the 48-year-old took the time out to appreciate the quality of basketballers at the ASC’s tournament.
“This a great pathway for young and aspiring players to play basketball,” Cameron said.
“It is awesome to be here. We haven’t had this tournament for three years, so it is great to see.
“Then when you think of the abundance of coaches in our sport around the whole country – it is pretty amazing.”
Cameron, who also coaches daughter Layla-Jade Cameron in the Hillcrest side, looks comfortable with the coach’s hat on.
He enjoyed giving cheek to the referees, who repeatedly told him to stay in his designated coach’s area.
Cameron, though, can’t help himself. He loves basketball and it’s why he is still involved in the game as a coach.
His Hillcrest girls overcame sections of sluggish play to defeat Rowville led by 15 points and eight rebounds from star forward Jade Peacock.
Cameron’s daughter, Layla-J, also added 10 points and six rebounds.
Forward Dakota Crichton was Rowville’s best player. Crichton finished with 14 points and five rebounds.
LEHMANN BRINGS GOLD MEDAL GLOSS TO IMMANUEL
Immanuel College (SA) – 77 def. St Luke’s Grammar School (NSW) – 51
Fresh off winning a gold medal with the Australian Under 15s girls at the FIBA Oceania Championships in Guam, Immanuel College star forward Sienna Lehmann is primed to make an impact in the Women’s Championship.
Lehmann missed the opening day of the tournament as she returned from her national commitments, but it didn’t show in a stellar first-up performance against St Luke’s Grammar School.
The proud South Australian dropped a game-high 23 points and added nine rebounds and six assists in a classy 35-minute stint.
Lehmann thoroughly enjoyed her time in the green and gold, but she is fully focused on succeeding at the ASC’s in her first appearance at the event with Immanuel College.
“It was amazing to win gold (with Australia), but now it’s good to be back playing with the school,” said Lehmann, who was ranked No.6 in News Corp’s top 30 high school girls players.
“This is my first year with Immanuel. We’ve always had strong basketball, so it’s great to come away with them.
“Hopefully, we can do well and get to the finals.”
Lehmann’s presence immediately made Immanuel a stronger team.
She took control of the game with her shooting in the opening quarter to drop nine points.
St Luke’s attempted to shut her down in the second quarter, but she had the awareness and experience to turn to her passing game with four assists.
Immanuel College also received strong performances from Airlie Ramsey (14 points), Krystal Thompson (11 points) and Aspen Grace (10).
Point guard and captain Felicity Henderson led the way for St Luke’s with 21 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.
RISING ST AUGUSTINE’S COLLEGE GUARD HAILED A “SMALLER” JOSH GIDDEY
St Augustine’s College (NSW) – 72
Yarrabilba State Sec College (QLD)- 54
Meet Hugh Lucas, the rising shooting guard from Sydney’s St Augustine’s College that his coach likens to a “smaller Josh Giddey”.
Lucas put on a show in St Augustine’s comfortable 72-54 win over Queensland’s Yarrabilba State Sec College.
The Manly-Warringah junior who is on the radar for NSW state selection had 19 points at halftime before finishing with 30 points in a dominant display.
St Augustine’s coach Scott Duchatel said Lucas has been the brains behind the Manly based teams that he has coached for years.
Duchatel likens the 15-year-old guard to current NBA star Giddey when it comes to producing an all-round game.
“Hugh does it all,” Duchatel said.
“He is a smaller Giddey, and he is also currently averaging 25 points a game.
“He is a coach’s dream and has been an extension of me on the court for the last three or four years.
“He helps me run the offence and he knows what I want out of him.
“Hugh has just cracked the NSW Under 17s Metro team – he is a fantastic player.”
In the other Under 17s Boys Division 3 game, Brisbane Adventist defeated Victoria’s Lilydale HS 65-51.
BOYS AND GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION STAT LEADERS
Lake Ginninderra College captain and forward Cameron Pender has emerged as an early Men’s Championship Division MVP favourite after stuffing the stat sheet on the opening day on the Gold Coast.
Pender leads the men’s Championship in points (30), rebounds (13) and assists (six), which has helped Lake Ginninderra claim two wins from two starts.
15-year-old Brisbane State High School sensation Roman Siulepa sits second in points scored (28) and equal first in assists alongside Pender with six.
According to his coaches, Siulepa’s passing has improved tenfold since joining the NBA Global Academy in Canberra this year.
In the women’s Championship Division, Hillcrest Christian College’s Jade Peacock leads the way in average points with 29pts, closely followed by star Lake Ginninderra College duo Jessica Petrie (25pts) and Isla Juffermans (23pts).
St Luke’s Grammar School’s point guard Felicity Henderson leads the way in rebounds, averaging a whopping 18.
Day 2 is looming as another blockbuster day of Championship Division action, highlighted by Brisbane State High School taking on Newington College in the men at 12pm (AEST) and Lake Ginninderra College versus fellow unbeaten side Templestowe College in the women from 2pm (AEST).
MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION STAT LEADERS
Average points:
Cameron Pender (Lake Ginninderra College) – 30 pts
Roman Siulepa (Brisbane State High School) – 28pts
Jaylen Pitman (The Southport School) – 24.5 pts
Elijah Kamu (Brisbane State High School) – 23 pts
Ben Tweedy (The Southport School) – 21 pts
Average rebounds:
Cameron Pender (Lake Ginninderra College) – 13 rbs
Bowyn Beatty (Lake Ginninderra College) – 11.5 rbs
Elijah Kamu (Brisbane State High School) – 11 rbs
Gok Malek (Newington College) – 11 rbs
Average assists:
Cameron Pender (Lake Ginninderra College) – 6 ast
Roman Siulepa (Brisbane State High School) – 6 ast
James Burrard (Newington College) – 5 ast
Mason Amos (Brisbane State High School – 5 ast
Joel Foxwell – (Rowville Secondary College) – 4.5 ast
WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION STAT LEADERS:
Average points:
Jade Peacock (Hillcrest Christian College) – 29 pts
Jessica Petrie (Lake Ginninderra College) – 25 pts
Isla Juffermans (Lake Ginninderra College) – 23 pts
Lily Carmody (Templestowe College) – 17 pts
Lilly Amor (Templestowe College) – 16 pts
Average rebounds:
Felicity Henderson (St Luke’s Grammar) – 18 rbs
Aspen Crase (Immanuel College) – 14 rbs
Isla Juffermans (Lake Ginninderra College) – 14 rbs
Jessica Petrie (Lake Ginninderra College) – 12.5 rbs
Chole Dix – (St Luke’s Grammar School) – 12 rbs
Average assists:
Lily Carmody (Templestowe College) – 6.5 ast
Lucy Dexter (Rowville Secondary College) – 5 ast
Alison Francis (Lake Ginninderra College) – 4 ast
Felicity Henderson (St Luke’s Grammar) – 4 ast
Layla-J Cameron – Hillcrest Christian College) – 4 ast
Originally published as Australian Basketball Schools Championships: All the news and analysis from day 2
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