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2017 Champions Cup – Review and Results

The winners of twelve ‘Smarter than Smoking’ School Slam Series across Western Australia (WA) competed yesterday in the 2017 ‘Champions Cup’. Twenty eight teams across four categories competed to take out the title of Champion School at Bendat Basketball Centre in Floreat.

St Emilies Catholic Primary School (Canning Vale) took out the All Star Boys Championship beating Ashdale Primary School (Darch) in the grand final by 15 points. It was an exciting game that was within 4 points until St Emilies’ consistent scoring blew out in the last minutes. Both teams encountered each other in the pool rounds where Ashdale won by one point, so already had a rivalry. The teams entered the semi finals placed first and second where the cross over saw St Emilies playing East Fremantle Primary School and Ashdale played Parkfield Primary School.

Across the board the All Star Boys competition was very competitive with numerous participants already playing in the ‘Western Australian Basketball League’ (WABL) at their respective clubs.

In the All Star Girls category, it was Georgiana Molloy Anglican School (Busselton) who took out the Championship by 11 points to Davallia Primary School (Duncraig). Georgiana Molloy Anglican School were the dominate forces across the entire day finishing undefeated in the pool rounds with the highest percentage. The girls from Georgiana Molloy  benefited by qualifying as grade fives in last years Champions Cup and used this experience to win this year. The Davallia girls put up a strong fight with some outstanding individual skills from their players and both teams have girls who will be representing WA at the 2018 ‘Southern Cross Challenge’.

Across the ‘Future Star’ divisions there were many close games with only one game margin exceeding double figures. The ‘Future Star’ boys North Woodvale Primary School (North Woodvale) took out the Championship over Harrisdale Primary School, and in the ‘Future Star’ girls competition, Harrisdale Primary School took out the Championship beating Bannister Creek Primary School in the final.

The expansion of the School Slam Series saw the School Slam Series run in Karratha, Gerladton and Eaton. This year the champions of the Eaton and Gerladton Series travelled to Perth  and provided some strong competition against their metropolitan counterparts. Dongara District High School represented in both the All Star Boys and All Star Girls placed 5^th in their pools. Parkfield Primary School and Georginana Molloy Anglican School qualified from the Eaton Series and placed 3^rd and 1^st overall respectively.

Basketball WA’s Participation and Events Officer Georgia Clarke said “It was so great to see such a large representation from the Country towns and Basketball WA are excited to continue expanding the series to provide more opportunities for our regional players in 2018”.

The Champions Cup was one of the most competitive and largely participated Cups since 2008, and Basketball WA would like to thank their continued sponsor Healthway and ‘Smarter than Smoking’ as well as all delivery partners including School Sport WA and SEDA. Basketball WA looks forward to its working relationship with its key stakeholder to provide this experience to future basketball stars in Western Australia.

Basketball WA will be launching the 2018 School Slam Series dates in the coming weeks, and encourage interested schools to go to http://schools.basketballwa.asn.au to find out more.