THE Hawkesbury Basketball Association has celebrated one of its finest-ever weekends in what has so far been a relatively short but highly successful history, with five of its six representative teams winning berths in the upcoming 2008 playoff series.
The crowning achievement to date has been the State League men’s team capturing the PhotoExcellence Cup for 2008, which is the Annual award contested between the Jets, Penrith Panthers and Springwood Scorchers for bragging rights in the Nepean Valley.
The Jets now head north to Newcastle for the final weekend of the 2008 NSW State League Basketball competition and will play three teams from Pool A this weekend.
There are two games on Saturday, with the first at 10.30am against the Coffs Harbour Suns and the second at 2.30pm against the Lismore Storm, followed at 11.30am on Sunday morning against the Ballina Breakers.
The Penrith Panthers men’s team will also be in Newcastle and meet the same three teams as the Jets.
In what has also been a history-making performance in the junior ranks, the Under 14 men, Under 16 men, Under 18 men and Under 16 women’s team have all qualified for the playoffs in the Sydney Junior Championships.
Jets State League captain/coach Brad McGuiness said he was more than delighted on with the result.
“The Hawkesbury Basketball Association has had a great weekend,” he said.
“The boys 14 side had to win on the day just to qualify and ended up hitting a buzzer-beater to win by one point.
“The 18 boys had to win or they would drop to fifth – and they won by a point – and the 16 boys and 18 women got through in two really tight games.”
During the season the mens State League team has had some impressive looking stats, losing their first game in March to the Panthers by one point but then going on to win nine out of the next eleven games.
While in round two the Jets modestly defeated the Central Coast Power 96-74 they went on in rounds six and seven to beat the Power in consecutive thrashings of 106-60 and 113-53 – the Jets best scorelines this year.
In all but two of the past 12 rounds, Graham Godwin has been the club’s leading point-scorer for each round – scoring an outstanding 292 points this season.
Ben Hawk comes in second at 115 points.
In other Jets matches held on the weekend, in the juniors grand final the Bulls defeated the Rabbits 46-20 in the U12 mixed; the Stingers defeated the High Flyers 55-32 in the U14 mixed; the Red Devils beat the Misfits 100-39 in the U16 youth; and Team 1 defeated Cobras 40-35.
In the Mens First Division grand final, the Blazers defeated the Vets 51-42; Shaft defeated Timberwolves 48-37 in Division 2; and the Scorpions beat the Pig Trotters 48-41.
The Thunderbirds defeated the Monkeys 33-27 in the girls junior division final and the Black Panthers beat the Flames 46-25 in the Womens open division final.