Monivae Basketball continues to enter a large number of teams in the Hamilton Amateur Basketball Association with thirteen teams entered in both the summer and winter seasons.
Varying levels of success were experienced by our basketballers, with many teams contesting the finals including an all Monivae showing in the Division 1 Womens Grand Final. A number of players did very well individually winning Most Valuable Players Awards. However, Monivae Basketball is not only about winning, we had a number of players joining in teams for their very first seasons and getting much enjoyment out of playing with their friends.
Monivae sends representative teams away to compete in both the CAS (Catholic All Schools) and Australian All-Schools National Championships when the event is played within Victoria.
Catholic All Schools Basketball Tournament - 2010
Monivae College again entered a senior boys and senior girls team into the Western Zone qualifier in Ballarat, expectations were high after the 2009 Boys side won the event final in Melbourne.
Senior Girls
The senior girls kicked off against Trinity College Colac and from the opening minutes looked the better side. Sophie Templeton opened the scoring for Monivae and Lauren Handreck also started to find her shots. Emma Sommerville was too strong underneath cleaning up every defensive rebound and Monivae was able to run out comfortable winners.
In what was expected to be the Girls toughest match they played Marian College Ararat in their second match. The margin was only 6 points at halftime to Marian but in the first few minutes of the second half Marian was able to find space and hit their long shots to see them run away with the game by 15 points.
The girls had to play back to back games due to a draw error and after a physical game against Marian the match against Sacred Heart College Kynton was always going to be tough. The going was difficult early, but towards halftime Monivae started to get going and some smart plays from Ellie and Sophie Templeton and good work under the basket from Tamzin Perkins, Rebecca Grayson and Emma Sommerville saw Monivae get over the line.
The final was aginst Marian College Ararat, and the girls started the game very flat. The back-to-bck schedule giving the girls no rest ealrier had taken its toll and Marian were able to run out the game better and won handily by 21 points.
Senior Boys
After a win in 2009, the boys were confident of advancing to the Finals in Melbourne but their first game against Sacred Heart College didn't go their way. The boys were off their game early and missed shots that they would normally make with Sacred Heart hitting some tough shots, Todd Robinson looked good early on, and the big men in Anthiony Close and Jacklson Roder were keeping Sacred Heart to only one shot, but in the end Sacred Heart made their shots when it mattered with Monivae going down by four points.
Their second game was against Trinity College Colac, and the boys were able to hit their straps. Ben Walker and Brandon Ross controlled the ball well, giving the bigs plenty of opportunities inside. Good ball movement and strong on-ball defensive pressure allowed the boys to get home with a comfortable win.
Playing Sacred Heart Kynton in the finals, the boys were confident of reversing the earlier result. Better defensive pressure and smarter decisions with the ball saw Monivae take an early lead. The Monivae bigs were again looking dangerous inside, and Todd Robinson seemed to be able to get to the basket on his drives. With Sacred Heart looking more dangerous as the game came into the closing minutes a dubious foul by Monivae on a long three pointer saw Sacred Heart take the lead on fould shots. Some good defense by Sacred Heart in the final minutes and an inability by Monivae to create open shots for each other saw Monivae go down by 1 point.