2023 BIG V GAME BOOKLET - ROUND 13

VJBL TEAMS OF THE WEEK

We welcome the players, coaches and families from the following teams who will actively participate in the BIG V Game Night experience tonight!

GAME – UNDER 14.3 BOYS

YLM

YLM GAME – UNDER 14.4 BOYS

D1M GAME – UNDER 14.2 BOYS

D1M GAME – UNDER 16.3 BOYS

WESTFIELD DONCASTER, 619 DONCASTER RD, DONCASTER

COACHES CORNER – PREVIEW FROM THE COACH

Round 13 finds our Boomers hosting Altona at EDSC, in a game where we expect to win and continue our push towards securing a Finals spot; this is the first leg of this weekend’s double-header for our team, as we also face Collingwood away tomorrow.

In Round 12, we secured a very important away victory at Sherbrooke, showing our defensive strength and keeping the Suns to a season-low 49 points; even though we were undermanned (Marcel Haj and Cooper Ferdinando injured, Josh Uhr-Henry unavailable due to a clash with the Men’s team), all nine players who stepped on the court gave us points in offense and a lot of effort and intensity on the defensive end.

Bailey Milligan was fantastic with 16 points, 21 rebounds and 5 assists, while we also got valuable contributions from Sam Alexander (13 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists), Jaime Uhr-Henry (9 points, 13 rebounds, 6 blocks) and Sam Holland (9 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists); overall, we dominated the boards and played the game at our tempo, our zone posed Sherbrooke a lot of questions which their offense couldn’t answer and we managed to secure a vital win in our pursuit of a Finals spot. This week, we know we have a good opportunity to climb the ladder if we take two wins out of our two games; it won’t be easy, but we have been playing very well lately and we are definitely heading into the right direction.

The Gators are last in the ladder with 2 wins in 15 games and have notched 4 losses in a row; we know we cannot underestimate them as they will be trying to avoid finishing last and we know we have our work cut out for us.

We played Altona away in Round 1 and we won that game 93-64, so we will be trying to establish a lead early in order to rotate our players as much as possible and have them primed for the second game of the double-header at Collingwood.

We know Kurt Butler is one player that makes things happen for Altona and we will be trying to make sure he doesn’t find his rhythm.

It is very important that we control the rebounds as this will give us an opportunity to run the floor and get easy points in transition.

We also need to keep the ball moving as much as possible, as this will open up scoring opportunities and we know we play our best basketball when we have high assist numbers that help us take advantage of the depth in our roster in the scoring area.

ALEX WILSON – YL1M HEAD COACH

YOUTH LEAGUE 1 MEN PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

ROUND 12 RECAP

YOUTH LEAGUE 1 MEN

BULLEEN BOOMERS YTH LEAGUE 1 MEN

1. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 2. SPONSOR AVAILABLE

3. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 5. SPONSOR AVAILABLE

7. NUTRITION SUPERSTORE 8. SPONSOR AVAILABLE

14. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 21. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 26. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 35. SPONSOR AVAILABLE

9. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 10. SPONSOR AVAILABLE

COACHES CORNER – PREVIEW FROM THE COACH

Welcome to all of our Boomers fans as we return home for the first time in a month and have built some solid form winning 3 of our last 4 with the finals still firmly our goal and in our own hands.

Having been in charge of the team for just 6 weeks now, we have been able to implement a complete change to our style of play, applied greater demands and expectations on the defensive end and navigated a tough situation of making a mid-season change all while player availability has been rocky with injury and illness a week to week occurrence.

During our three game winning streak which included local rival Warrandyte last Saturday we were able to average 99ppg while keeping our opposition to just 77ppg and while the back end of our doubleheader last Sunday was certainly a major decline, the accumulation of weary bodies and playing shorthanded certainly contributed to the final result which we are committed to ensuring doesn’t occur again. The positive has been that we have blooded youth in the recent block of games providing genuine opportunities to see growth all whilst achieving team success.

Josh Uhr-Henry continues to excel in his first full season at BIG V senior level averaging a double double, Peter Deng has transformed from a rarely used rotation player into a 16pt per game guy, we have unearthed Callum O’Neill straight from the U/20 program, while the local core of Solakidis, Kanellos and White have assumed greater responsibility and output than years past.

Tonight we welcome the Warrnambool Seahawks, who are a country stalwart in Vic Basketball circles and arrive with a WLWLW in their last five games. Led by player/coach Alex Gynes (19.4ppg & 8.9rpg) who has showed no ill-effects from his ruptured achillies in 2022, the team are well positioned to make a deep run in the playoffs and we welcome the challenge to test ourselves against a benchmark team.

Import Jamal Pollydore (27ppg & 4.6rpg) has injected scoring punch as the second leading scorer in the league while Oliver Bidmade (8.5ppg & 13.2rpg) anchors the paint alongside his coach.

We invite everyone to stick around after the game as the players will be happy to spend 10 minutes out on the court chatting to the fans and getting some shots up with kids after the final buzzer.

RYAN ROGERS – D1M HEAD COACH

DIVISION 1 MEN

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

ROUND 12 RECAP

Bulleen 85 def Warrandyte 74

Bulleen 78 def by Pakenham 121

DIVISION 1 MEN

BULLEEN BOOMERS DIVISION 1 MEN

2. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 3. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 4. WALSH & WHITELOCK REAL ESTATE 5. SPONSOR AVAILABLE

8. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 9. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 11. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 22. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 24. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 27. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 56. SPONSOR AVAILABLE

COACHES CORNER – PREVIEW FROM THE COACH

The Championship Women are back in action this weekend against the Hume City Broncos. The Boomers secured two hard fought wins the past round over potential finals opponents in Sherbrooke by 15 points (3rd place), and Pakenham by 34 points (5th place). Star forward Olivia Bontempelli was awarded 'Blue Carpet' honors as one of the top performers of the round.

The Hume Broncos are currently sitting 6th on the ladder, but are a dangerous team. They are by far the fastest team in the league and therefore the Boomers must be ready to get back in defensive transition. The team is led by star import Kayona Lee, who comes in averaging 14.7 points and 13 rebounds (2nd in the league) per game. The Broncos also have recently added Jordan Hawkins to their roster, a second import big who played for GS Kronos Agiou Dimitriou in the Greece A-1 League, where she averaged 6 points and 6 rebounds per game.

The Boomers need to ensure that they control the rebounds tonight against the twin towers of Lee and Hawkins, and continue to display the hard-nosed defense and unselfish ball movement that the team has built their identity on.

MASON ROGERS – CW HEAD COACH

ROUND 12 RECAP

CHAMPIONSHIP WOMEN

BULLEEN BOOMERS STATE CHAMP WOMEN

4. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 5. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 6. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 7. SPONSOR AVAILABLE

9. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 10. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 14. SPONSOR AVAILABLE

17. SPONSOR AVAILABLE 25. SPONSOR AVAILABLE

15. SPONSOR AVAILABLE

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR VALUED PARTNERS

NEXT WEEKS HOME GAMES

SATURDAY 1ST JULY

DIVISION 1 MEN

V SHEPPARTON GATORS

TIP-OFF: 7PM

BULLEEN BASKETBALL WISHES TO THANK …

Glenn Hoole – BIG V Program Convenor

Peter Bail – Game Day Commissioner

Craig Davidson - Courtside Announcer

Stats & Scoretable Officials

Videographer

Game Day Support Personnel