Record year for Maccabi Basketball
2010 has been a wonderful year for the NSW Maccabi Basketball Club, which enjoyed excellent results and also a big surge in membership – and therefore teams – in both the junior and senior age groups.
We started the year with 110 junior players and 48 seniors, and finished with 165 and 72 respectively. This bolstered our total membership from 158 to 237 players. We fielded multiple teams in a number of age groups in the boys’ competition, such as the U/12 Boys which had 5 teams. The girls were represented with a team in every age group up to U/18, a significant improvement over last year.
Junior Semi-Final Results:
U/10 Maccabi Magic 19 vs All Black Pemulwuy 21
U/10 Maccabi Heat 11 vs Inner City Wizards 52
U/12 Maccabi Kings 15 vs Inner City Celtics 19
U/12 Maccabi Hornets 16 vs Reddam E 19
U/12 Girls Maccabi Cheetahs 12 vs Newtown 18
U/12 Maccabi Jazz 2 vs Saint Grey 30
U/14 Girls Maccabi Devils 12 vs Coogee 26
U/18 Maccabi Celtics vs Newtown
U/18 Maccabi Girls 9 vs Panic 23
Grand Final Winners
In the Grand Finals, the Celtics had a slow start against YMCA and could not contain the opposition as they out rebounded and shot their way in to a 25-17 lead at half time. As soon as the 2nd half commenced, the Celtics came back with a more intensive defence, causing turnovers which allowed Nick Ujvary to hit the outside shots while Desi Kohn commanded the rebounds to score 4 baskets in quick succession. They had a great come-back to win the Grand Final 39- 30.
Senior sides:
History was made this year when, in the first competition of 2010, our Premier League and Division 1 Kings went through to their respective Grand Finals, coached by NBL star Bruce Bolden and ex-Sydney Kings captain Brad Rosen.
Both Grand Final matches were fought hard, with our Div 1 Kings winning convincingly and our PL team as runners up. What a fantastic start!
In the second comp of the year, the Premier League had a slump in form, causing the coaches to introduce a “no training – no playing” rule – if a player did not train they would be dropped for the next game.
This had an immediate and positive effect, with the team finishing in second place, defeating the very strong Haldon Cheetahs in the 1st Quarter Final, a team which had not lost a match through this competition. Unfortunately, the PL lost its Semi-Final quest against K1X, who went on to win the Grand Final.
In other senior divisions, our Div 2 women’s team made the Grand Final of the 2nd competition and were runners up after hard-fought game.
The Maccabi Masters and Rockets played in the men’s Div 5 Quarter Finals after excellent performances throughout the final competition of the year and successfully making it to a number of finals throughout 2010.
