mmg.com.au

Shepparton Gators’ under-16 division one team has won the first tournament of the 2012-13 squad season at Swan Hill last weekend.

Shepparton won all of its qualifying games against Wodonga (34-18), Echuca (44-22), Mildura (52-12) and Bendigo (36-19) to progress to the grand final, where it again met Bendigo.

Bendigo took a six-point lead into the half-time break even though Shepparton had established a modest lead early in the match, but Shepparton fired again in the second half to win the final 36-31.

Harry Boyd was a consistently strong performer in all games and was named the Most Valuable Player in the grand final.

Coach Leigh Bathman said it was going to be interesting to see how the team fared given he had been unable to attend all their practice sessions in the lead up due to family commitments in Melbourne.

He said the players’ ability to listen and ‘‘pay attention to detail of our instructions we provided in our limited preparation’’ had set them in good stead at the tournament.

‘‘Their ability to pressure defence up the court, I think they created a lot of turnovers through their intensity,’’ Bathman said.

‘‘There were a couple of pretty handy, athletic kids there as well who created a lot of turnovers for us which gave us easy access to score.’’

Shepparton Gators’ under-16 division one girls and under-14 division one boys also competed, but did not progress through to the finals.

The tournament action continues this weekend for the Shepparton Gators’ sides with some teams heading to either the Geelong Junior Tournament or Wangaratta Basketball Tournament.