Last Thursday, eleven of our Year 11/12 students competed in the annual School Sport Open Boys Basketball event at Port Lincoln High School. Our boys certainly put their hours of lunchtime practice to the test, competing against rival teams in St. Joseph’s School, Navigator College and Cowell Area School.
Our first game saw us come up against Cowell; our boys took control early and maintained a solid lead for the entirety of the game. They played with confidence and flair and looked to set themselves up for the rest of the day.
A much tougher task was encountered in our second game, with St. Joseph’s matching us for both size and speed. With both sides registering wins in their first game, the contest was surely set to thrill. The game ebbed and flowed, however some brilliant individual efforts from both Michael Dickinson, Max Laube and Ollie Sellen in the closing stages saw our boys take a small lead which would eventually secure our second victory.
The equation was simple for our third game – win, and our school would be the overall victor. Like St. Joseph’s, Navigators matched up against us quite well. Our boys certainly felt the pressure early as Navigators came out with the hot hand, rarely missing shots throughout the entire first half. Although our boys responded well in the second half, with four minutes to play, Navigators still held a slim five-point lead. Enter Dannen Blacker. In his final year at PLHS, Dannen simply refused to let the boys down, and took it upon himself to claw our team back into the game. On multiple possessions down the stretch, Dannen simply took over the game and dragged the win away from Navigators. His ability to continue bringing his teammates into the game whilst displaying some true individual brilliance was absolutely outstanding.
The boys remained undefeated for the day and ultimately secured another pennant flag for PLHS. They were brilliant as a team and displayed some excellent skills on the court; an absolute pleasure to coach. A thank you must go out to Kyle Bond (one of our excellent SSOs) who assisted the boys and I throughout the day.
~ Mr Hayden Bennett (Accompanying Teacher)
