The Horsham Hornets junior teams have enjoyed a weekend of good fortunes at the Bendigo Junior Classic basketball tournament.
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While no team was able to hold aloft the silverware, the Hornets showed tenacity, talent and heart in matches across the three-day tournament.
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Six of the ten Horsham teams entered into the competition earned podium finishes on their division ladders after pool matches were complete, with at least seven teams continuing to the finals deep into Monday.
The Under 14 Boys, Under 14 Girls Tepper and Under 18 Boys all finished top of their pools, while the Under 14 Girls Division 1 side finished second in theirs.
Both the Under 12 Boys and Under 12 Girls finished third in their pools, while the Under 14 Girls Mellington team finished fourth, as did the Under 18 Girls.
Six runs ended in semi-finals berths, including the Under 16 Girls who lost by just one-point in Division One.
The Under 18 Boys made it all the way to the grand final of their division with a side that featured Hornets men Freddy Frew Mitch Amos and Hugh Dougherty.
However Seymour proved too strong, and took home the silverware by 14 points.
Under 18 Boys coach Matt Lovel was extremely pleased with how his side performed.
"They played really well," Lovel told the Wimmera Mail-Times.
"It's always pretty stiff competition over in Bendigo, we came up against a couple of good teams.
"I'm really proud of how the boys went."
Although they went down against Seymour, Lovel was happy with their effort against a bigger and older side.
"They had some good players and they were a good side," he said.
"I think their four players were as big as our biggest player so it makes it tough.
"All our boys are bottom-aged players too and those were mainly top-aged boys on the other team. So it's a pretty good effort."
They played really well.
- Coach Matt Lovel speaking about his Under 18 Boys side.
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Overall, Lovel pointed to his side's defence as one of their standout attributes over the tournament.
"Because we're fairly undersized I think defensively we did quite well," he said.
"We generally don't have a lot of issues scoring but when you're playing against the bigger bodies sometimes the defence side of things becomes pretty important.
"I'm just really happy with how they all played a lot of good team defence."
Over in the Division 2 Under 14 Girls, teams Tepper and Mellington played off against one another in a quarter final.
Tepper progressed, but was defeated by Melton in a semi final.
The Under 16 Girls side finished 7th in their pool.
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