Sportznut sponsors a local basketball team that comprises of Geelong High School students competing in the U/19 Division One of the Life Be In It league on Friday nights.

 This page is to track their results and to post some photos of them in action.

    

1st Report - November 15, 2007

We have an excellent team - 5 of the boys have played for Stingrays, a rep Geelong team - we have 9 players all up.

Last week 9th Nov Round 1

We played last year’s premiers (Kardinia Wildcats) who knocked us out in the semi-final last year, a team we have never beaten. We won by 4 points - after trailing for most of the game, except for 10 minutes.

We struggled to get rebounds and needed to work much harder on getting the boards, they have two tall strong players who are very athletic. We tried a number of different tactics to get a break, man on man did not work as this left the key open for their big players.

Eventually we closed down their scoring by going back to a 2-3 defence. With around 3 minutes left we hit a 3 pointer in, making scores level, then Julian went to the free throw line and made both points. We slowed the game down for a minute and a half , then scored another goal right on the siren to secure the win.

Final Scores Sportznut 38 - Kardinia Wildcats 34

It was a tough battle for the boys with no real outstanding players on the night.

Goal Scorers
Julian Melvin 12
Addison Daly 6
Marty Liebich 7
Lauren D’Halluin 4
Brady Mits 9

This week we play Slydogs at 9.30 pm

2nd Report - 4th December 2007

Round 3

Final Scores

Sportznuts 45 v Knights Of Columbus 42
This week The Sportznuts played the Knights of Columbus. We had only four of our nine players (Julian Melvin, Addison Daly, Brady Mits and Marty Leibich) with two fill-ins. A tough battle was fought out between the two teams, the biggest margin of the game being eight points. The Knights of Columbus were the ones with that eight point lead half way through the first half going into the half-time break Sportznuts trailed by four points. Sportznuts were off to a good start in the second half, turning it around to lead by four points early in the second half. Sportznuts lost the lead with about two minutes to go and were down by three, but a long three from Julian Melvin tied things up again, which swung the momentum in our favour, Sportznuts scored again through Marty Leibich to hit the lead again by two points. With fifteen seconds to go, we were fouled and sent to the free through line, Ash Rhodes who helped us by filling in hit one of two and got the rebound of the missed shot and we held the ball to get away with a three point win. With an under manned team, the Sportznuts ran out three point winners and were happy to get away with the result.

Scorers
Addison Daly 19, Julian Melvin 14, Marty Liebich 8, Brady Mits 3, Ash Rhodes 1

Next Friday Sportznuts v Sly Dogs at 7.50 pm Life Be In It Centre.

3rd Report December 11th

Sportznuts had a convincing win against the Sly Dogs last Friday night. Starting with only five players for the first 10 minutes until Chris Hill (Stingray’s junior coach) turned up after to give players a rest. Sportznuts were on top for the whole game jumping to a lead early on, unfortunately Sportznuts missed many opportunities at the ring which would have been a good percentage boost. Half way through the second half we went on a scoring run and managed to get 20 points clear which we held for the rest of the game. There was some excellent plays involving Chris and Brady Mits who had an exceptional game scoring 8 points but it was his team play that made the game for him. Addison Daly had another big scoring day with 21 points.

Final Scores Sportznut 51 – Sly Dogs 31

Scorers Addison Daly 21, Julian Melvin 9, Brady Mits 8, Marty Liebich 6, Chris Hill 4 and Ryan Doherty 3. 

Next week should be a big challenge playing the Leopold Jets, 6.00pm at the Link in Leopold, they have some tall athlete players, with our talls overseas we will have to a team strategy to get into the key.

After the 4th round we are 3 wins, no losses and a bye. Second on the ladder, needing percentage to take top spot.

February 11 Report

Before the school holidays the Sportznuts came up against the Jets in one of the hottest days of the year. One of the three powerhouse teams of the league, the other two being the Kardinia Wildcats and of course the Sportznuts. A very close game from the beginning, Sportznuts started the game with only four players for the first seven minutes, at half time only a few points separated the team. Finally half way through the second half the Sportznuts got the break they needed, placing an 8 point buffer between the teams, which the Sportznuts were able to hold and win by ten points. Overall a great and competitive game, with our standout players being Julian Melvin 10 pts, Marty Liebich 10 pts and Chris Hill 8pts. Final scores being 43 to 33. On their day Jets from Leopold have the ability to beat any team so the next encounter should be interesting.

 

This week the Sportznuts downed the Sly Dogs by 21 points in a very physical game. The Sportznuts were only up by 8 at half time, with the Sly Dogs just holding on. In the second half tempers flared between both teams as the game got very physical and at times a bit dangerous with pushing and some elbows flying. A time out was called to give the teams a chance to cool off and upon the continue of the game the Sportznuts were able to control their tempers and put their heads in the game and with a full court press that got a 20 point lead with they held for the remainder of the game. Final Scores 46 to 27. Marty Liebich 14 pts, Julian Melvin 14 pts, Brady Mits 7. It was a good team effort first week back from the holidays.

 

Next week

Sportznuts play Knight of Columbus a team we were lucky to beat last time, although we had to get extra players to make up numbers. So we will be looking for a 15-20 point win this time. Game time 7.00 pm Friday at the Try Boys Stadium

 

Coming up:

Sportznuts will clash with the Kardinia Wildcats, reining champions for 3 seasons running .Both teams undefeated for the season and playing for top spot on the ladder. Sportznuts have beat the Kardinia Wildcats twice already this season, but both were practice matches and did not count towards premiership points. Last time they clashed Sportznuts 38 Kardina Wildcats 34.

 

This possible Grand Final preview should be a great game and will be played on Friday the 22^nd of February at 6:10 at the Leopold LINC (Leopold Primary School).

February 29 Report

 

A fortnight ago the SportzNuts beat the Knights of Columbus by 30 points, once again with only five players, two being injured and one coaching for the Stingrays. Last time these teams meet SportzNuts came out on top by only 3 points. With the game never in the balance the SportzNuts cruised to an easy victory with Marty Liebich’s outstanding 34 point game, the next highest scorer being Addison Daly with 14. A strong performance from an under strength team, Brady Mits having an outstanding first half and Addison Daly contributed well all game. At least it gave all players plenty of game time.

 

Final Scores

Sports Nuts 62 Knights of Columbus 32

 

This week the SportzNuts came up against the 3 time reining champions the Kardinia Wildcats. Last time they meet SportzNuts won by only 4, this time winning by 17, controlling the game from the beginning with an aggressive defence. Kardinia were never in the game and not at full strength, so it is expected the next time the two teams meet it will be a much closer game. A good team effort from the SportzNuts, once again led by Marty Liebich who had his second 30 point game in two weeks. With this win the SportzNuts remain undefeated for the season and go to top of the ladder. The next time these two teams should meet, it will most likely be the Grand Final!

 

Final Scores

Sports Nuts 55 Kardinia Wildcats 38

Finals Report

Semi Final

The Sportznuts finished the season undefeated and came up against the under strength Knights of Columbus. From the moment Sportznuts hit the court we where not going to lose, with very little pressure applied by the opposition as they were undermanned. It was a very scrappy and ugly game of basketball. We should have set ourselves a target of 100 pts. This was not the game we needed coming into the Grand Final. There were no real stand out players; everyone played an average game in which a win was inevitable.

 

Sportznuts 89 Knights of Columbus 48

Grand Final

The Sportznuts came up against the three time reining premiers the Kardinia Wildcats. The Sportznuts unfortunately went down by 19 points in a frustrating game. The Kardinia Wildcats shot an incredible percentage were as the Sportznuts just could not score. Shots would not drop for us; calls never went our way and were beaten by a better side on the day. The Sportznuts trailed by 10 points for most of the game until half way through the second half when they made a good push closing the gap to 3. But the Kardinia Wildcats, with their incredible shooting percentage ruined that by hitting consecutive three pointers. With less than five minutes to go, 10 points down, the Sportznuts made a final push. Trying to push the ball up the court quickly to beat their tall players back, hoping to get some lay-ups. Once again because our shots would not drop, this failed and Kardinia extended their lead, sealing the game. The Sportznuts went down fighting in their first and most crushing loss of the season. The up side of the game was Chris Hill aka Tuck receiving most valuable player award for the game. Very disappointing to lose the game, even worst to lose by such a large amount, we just could not get into the game.

Kardinia Wildcats 55 Sportznuts 36

We will be back next season, with some minor changes to the team, looking for more height and a variety of different game plans to suit who is on the court at the time.

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Message from the Sportznut Management

Thanks for representing the Sportznut brand so well all season guys. It’s a great effort to make a grand final. We can’t win them all of course, otherwise there’d be no such thing as competition.

Looking forward to seeing if the Sportznuts can go one better next season

Colin, Gil and Ronnie.