Boys and girls basketball teams win bronze

DAVID WEINER

AUSTRALIA’S boys and girls youth basketball sides both claimed bronze medals at the Maccabiah Games.

The boys’ finished with a 4-3 win-loss record, and showed their improvement by reversing a first up 17-point loss to Canada with a 17-point win in the bronze medal showdown.

Sam Hyman, Benji Tamir and Simon Tsapepas were the side’s sharpshooters throughou the campaign. However, this was a real team effort, with everyone getting on the score sheet in the side’s final four matches.

David Burns was outstanding in defence, dominating the rebounds.

Coach Andrew Solewicz said the medal was the reward to end their journey, which saw the squad make enormous strides.
“We are a really young team for this age group and they were really nervous for game one,” he said.

“We’ve improved in every game since and got confidence [from their positive results, including competitive losses to Israel and USA].”
The side claimed their medal with the threadbare squad of eight players. The other players were: Samson Baron, Jarred Kieser, Matthew Koadlow and Dean Marco.

The girls were the hot favourites to beat Canada in their bronze medal match, and outstanding defence and clutch free-throw shooting held off a spirited Canadian charge.

Coach Malcolm Derbridge was incredibly proud of his girls, who claimed their medal in a tough, hard fought ball game that saw them “accomplish their goal” of winning a medal.

The Aussies got out to an early lead, but Canada slowly pegged back the deficit to only be one point in arrears in the third quarter.

But the Aussies defended resiliently, led by Tamara Epstein’s dominance on the rebounds. Stephanie Perch then stepped up in the fourth quarter to hit a couple of clutch free-throws that sealed Australia’s victory.

The other members of the bronze medal side are: Rachel Diamond, Zoe Diamond, Ashleigh Ehrenfeld, Lauren Ehrenfeld, Jessica Glanz, Danielle Phillips, Adelaide Rosenthal and Ellie Rozendorn.