Boys Basketball Gala Day

On Monday 23rd February, the Junior and Intermediate Boys’ Basketball teams travelled to Penrith Sports Stadium for a PDSSSC Basketball Gala Day.

This tournament serves as an entry point for the regional and state tournaments with the winners advancing to higher honors later in the year.

Last year was the first time in school history that St Agnes had a team at the state titles with the Intermediate Boys placing fifth in the State. This year the team was almost a brand new team and the gala day was a chance for them to develop their skills and form combinations for future success. The boys competed strongly but did not progress past the round robin stage of the competition.

The Junior Boys were made up of mainly year eight students who played together in last years’ PDSSSC competition and were keen to show that they have improved significantly from last year.

The boys had to play six games with the winner of the tournament being the team with the most points acquired throughout the day. There was to be no grand final. In their first game, St Agnes drew to play Gilroy. The boys dominated this game from start to finish with their superior run and finished by winning the game by six points with all players contributing strongly.

Game two saw St Agnes against St Columbus. They were a very aggressive and physical team. St Agnes again was the better team, but with a couple of very dubious refereeing decisions, and a very lucky 3-point buzzer beater from St Columbus, the game ended in a draw. This meant that St Agnes would have to win their remaining games to win the tournament.

The boys played very well in their next games against St Bishoy’s and Xavier winning both very comfortably displaying high work ethic on defense and incredible teamwork on offense.

This moved St Agnes to second place with a game against the undefeated St Andrews. The winner of this game would go on to win the competition. St Agnes started the game strongly through Renard, Bronx, Jomari and JT scoring eight of the first ten points. The boys did not let up on defense and St Andrews struggled to make any impact throughout the first half. In the second half, the game became a little closer, but even though they were very drained after a long day, the boys held on to win by three points.

The boys played extremely well all day and are now ready to take on the best teams in the Regional PDSSSC event in Term Two.