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John Paul College claims third straight girls title
- Updated: December 11, 2012
MELBOURNE’s Caulfield Grammar and Queensland’s John Paul College were the big winners at the 2012 Australian Schools Championship held in Melbourne.
Hosted by the Knox and Kilsyth basketball associations from December 3-7, the tournament saw over 100 school teams from all over the country competing.
But, it was John Paul College that again dominated in the girls section, winning its third straight national championship and sixth overall, with a convincing 86-49 win in the Championship final over Rowville Senior Girls.
The win was set up in the first term, when the defending champs raced to a 25-9 lead, while Kalani Purcell led the way, achieving the rare triple-double with 25 points 18 rebounds and 10 assists.
Whitnee Wehi also downed 22 points, while Kristy Wallace chipped in with 14. Mikaela Dickson led the scoring for Rowville, with 17 points, while Monique Lyth downed 12, made up of four three-pointers.
Mountain Creek State High School won the bronze, by defeating Rosny College 66-44 in their play-off for third place.
The John Paul College trio of Purcell (96 at an average of 16 a game), Wallace (94 at 15.7) and Jessi Reeves (90 at 15.0) all featured in the top five for points-scoring, along with Mountain Creek’s Jess Gajewski (96 at 16) and Caulfield Grammar’s Georgia Pineau (98 at 19.6).
In the boys, Caulfield was forced to beat the ACT’s Lake Ginninderra College - a side featuring a number of AIS scholarship-holders, including Dante Exum – in overtime.
After scores were all tied up at 65 points apiece when the final buzzer sounded, Caulfield ran away with the game – and the gold.
Earlier, Caulfield had worked its way back from being down 14-25 at the first change.
Josh Oswald (24 points 21 rebounds) and Michael Luxford (32 points 8 rebounds 9 assists) led the way for the winners, while Exum downed 30 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the ACT boys.
Unley High School, meanwhile, claimed the bronze with a 78-69 win over Sydney Boys High.
Caulfield’s Luxley finished as the tournaments’ leading point-scorer with 211 at an average of 30.1 a game, ahead of Unley’s Sam Daly (184 at 26.3), Lake Ginninderra’s Exum (165 at 27.5), and his Caulfield teammate Oswald (165 at 23.6).
Oswald also led the rebounds tally, averaging 19.9 a game.
