Young Raiders take state title

By Greg Oakford
KNOX Raiders Under-14 1 boy’s team recently took out the state basketball titles in a hard-fought 17-point win over Bullen.
The Raiders were defeated by the Boomers in the annual Classic tournament over the Queen’s Birthday weekend but with the prestigious state title up for grabs this time around, the Raiders turned their game up a notch and secured the championship.
Knox finished with a 17-1 regular season record and set the benchmark of the competition.
After defeating Geelong in the first qualifying final by 31 points, the Raiders advanced straight to the preliminary finals where they faced McKinnon.
The Raiders were again too strong for their opposition, recording a convincing 29-point victory to advance to the grand final where Bulleen awaited.
The first quarter was played at a high tempo as both teams found their offensive rhythm.
A Jayden Hawkes three-pointer with less than 10 seconds remaining in the term edged the Raiders ahead by two points going into the first break.
Starting out the second quarter of play the Raiders were able to get a quick jump on the Boomers and found themselves up by 10 points halfway through the period.
The Boomers held stead for the last few minutes going into half-time but it was the Raiders who still held a respectable nine-point advantage.
Coming out of the main break, Hawkes caught fire for the Raiders as centre Marek Toman continued his dominance inside the paint.
Hawkes nailed three consecutive three-pointers in the span of two minutes mid-way through the third quarter and scored 11 of his team’s 18 points for the term.
With Hawkes on fire, the Raiders extended their buffer out to as much as 16 with four minutes to go but the Boomers were not done with yet as they hit back with a 10-3 run to finish the third, leaving the Raiders with the same nine-point half-time lead.
With the game still heavily in the balance the Raiders needed to produce a big effort in the final quarter.
The Raiders did just that, keeping their opposition to just two points for the entire fourth quarter while notching up 10 of their own to finish eventual winners 60-43.
Hawkes finished the game with 20 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists including four timely three-pointers and was awarded grand final MVP for his performance.
The Raiders got good contributions from all 10 players but it was the play of Hawkes, Toman and Luke Hannon that really separated the Raiders’ efforts from the Boomers’.
Toman also notched up 20 points and pulled down 12 rebounds in a true big man’s performance.
Hannon stood up and did a great defensive job on Boomers young gun Christian Petracca (10 points and 6 turnovers) in addition to having a great all-round stat line of 8 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals.
Knox head coach Dale Crotty was elated for his team and stated it was an outstanding team performance that got his charges over the line.
“Everyone did their job and we had ten guys who could go out there and contribute which hurt Bulleen most,” he said.
Unfortunately the junior Raiders couldn’t make it a three-peat on Friday night at MSAC with the under-16 1 boys and under-18 1 girls both being defeated in their respective Victorian Championship grand finals.
The under-16 boys trailed by three going into the last quarter against Werribee but were outscored by seven in the final term and were defeated 56-46.
Meanwhile, the under-18 girls went down 50-43 to the Melbourne Tigers in a game of two halves. The Raiders kept the Tigers to just 12 second-half points but had to play from behind all game after giving up 38 first-half points.