The long weekend tournament had dozens of teams embark to the northern country town for the annual event and, despite soaring temperatures, the Gators delivered scintillating basketball.
The boys’ under-18 side clutched up time after time in its pool stage, winning four out of its five games, each victory by no more than five points.
Shepparton’s exciting emerging junior talents Dashiell Smith and Spencer Wright led the way on the scoring front, averaging 15.5 and 10.8 points a game respectively across the tournament.
However, the Gators were tasked with an undefeated Bendigo Braves in their semi-final and, while Smith and Wright gave defenders a run for their money with scoring outputs of 22 and 11, the opening quarter deficit of 23-5 was too big a mountain to climb as the Braves waltzed through to a grand final berth.
The under-18 Gators girls faced a similar outcome in their round-robin.
Shepparton suffered an early blowout loss to Bendigo in round one, but would bounce back in its next three games with wins by 12, 21 and 19-point margins.
However, its early loss would mean the Gators would once again need to play an undefeated side in the semi-final, where it would once again all come unstuck despite a valiant performance from Holly Reid, who scored more than half the team’s points in its eventual 27-point defeat.
Shepparton also fielded under-12, 14 and 16 teams, but none could reach finals action on Monday.
Meanwhile in the under-18s boys third division, Tatura too rebounded from an opening loss to score a 4-1 record, before the Titans were defeated by Melton in the semi-final.
Seamus Chapman led the way in scoring, averaging nearly 14 points per game.
The Titans also had an under-14s boys side squeak their shoes on the hardwood, which would win its first two matches before a tough fixture to finish saw the team miss a shot at finals.
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