Victoria & Queensland line up a double U20 Grand Final
For a full recap of results, ladders and top performers from Day 4 click here.
Queensland’s women started the day off with a nail-biting win over South Australia 84-80, securing them in 2nd place and a position in the gold medal game tomorrow. Catherine MacGregor lead the scoring with 23 points and 5 three-pointers with sizable contributions from Grace Ellis (16 points) and Neferatali Notoa (17 points) who helped the Queensland side get to a comfortable lead early ensuring that any efforts from South Australia would be for little.
Queensland will take on Victoria in the final tomorrow after they advanced comfortably past Tasmania’s this evening taking the victory 103-37 further solidifying their top spot on the ladder.
The women’s bronze medal match was all but decided heading into the final day, however the tournament saw a preview as Victoria A and New South Wales faced up against one another in their final pool match. NSW shot out to a sizeable lead in the first, while Victoria A surged home in the second but it was not enough as New South Wales ran away with the win 79-56 with Sara Matthews (16 points) and Ruby MacDonald (17 points) shooting their team out of reach of the Victorians.
On the U20 men’s side the semi finals did not disappoint with Queensland once again giving it all against a fierce NSW in order to progress while Victoria faced up against Tasmania for a spot in the gold medal match. Queensland’s Kian Dennis (23 points, 13 rebounds) and Blake Jones (13 points, 19 rebounds) controlled the game with their physical presence, dominating the floor on both ends to help shut down New South Wales’ shooters, allowing them to progress to the ultimate final.
After going down to Victoria earlier in the week, Tasmania gave it all they had but the talents of Josh Giddey (17 points, 10 assists) and Zac Triplett (20 points with 5 threes) could not be stopped as the Victorians cruised into yet another grand final.
The highlight of the day came in the U20 Men classification game between South Australia and ACT. After last nights thrilling overtime match we thought we had seen our closest match of the tournament as the two teams faced off to see who would qualify for the 5th place final at the end of the day. The teams could not be split after four quarters and as the overtime buzzer sounded there was not a point difference between them resulting in our first double overtime of the tournament. 6 threes and 29 points from Dhal Fieg could not get ACT over the line as South Australia recorded a hard-fought victory as they shared much of the scoring load between Sebastian Griffin (20 points), Joel Dyer (19) and Cameron Huefner (18). South Australia then backed up this win with another win against Victroria A placing them 5th in the 2020 men’s tournament.
The Ivor Burge women had their first taste of finals action as they battled it out for a place in the finals. The dominant Victoria were given the day off after getting through the tournament undefeated with 4 wins, however their opponent, New South Wales, had to beat ACT in the qualifying final before they too were named a finalist in the gold medal match. The NSW women advanced after the 86-34 victory off the back of Brittany Anderson’s star performance knocking down 25 points, 13 rebounds and 9 steals.
Victoria’s Ivor Burge men also progressed with a 106-38 win over ACT and it was down to Japan and South Australia A to battle it out for a place in the gold medal match. Clearly in the top 3 teams of the tournament, both SA and Japan were looking capable to advance but it was meant to be for South Australia as they played their best game of the week to find themselves in a gold medal match on Sunday aiming to repeat their gold medal from 2019.
The heart warming story of the day goes to South Australia B in the Ivor Burge Men who recorded their first victory of the week scoring a whopping 85 points to beat New South Wales by 17. The second South Australian team was led by the might of Franz Theodore with 26 points, and Constantios Gouras who had 17 points and 21 rebounds to finish their week with a bang.
For all fixtures, results and live stats click here.
A double Victoria verse Queensland U20 Grand Final has been lined up as teams battled it out on Day four in the penultimate round of finals at the Australian Under-20 & Ivor Burge Championships.
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