On the 10th of June, the Edmund Rice College Year 7/8 Basketball team went to the Snakepit at Beaton Park to compete in the NSWCCC Basketball Qualifiers Knockout. This event was a straight up semi-final / final format, with the winning team advancing to the NSWCCC Basketball Championships.

ERC made a quick start rushing to an early lead against St John’s Nowra – through some smart plays from our big men Josh Higginson and Lachlan Eastley. St John’s made a strong fight back in the second half but we managed to hold on thanks to some timely three point shooting from Finn Faulkner and William Shrimpton. Lachlan’s clutch free throws at the end sealed a 31-28 win.

This win put us up against John Therry in the final. Their height and rebounding troubled us as we found ourselves down by 16. Through some exceptional defence led by Samuel Di Leva, the team dug deep and fought for every possession climbing back to within 5 but unfortunately ran out of time. Final score 34-39.

Squad list: Lucas Chrystal-Foy Jayden Svarc Jacob Pucillo Archie O’Hara Finn Faulkner Jai Anderson Samuel Di Leva Lachlan Eastley Joshua Higginson Nicholas Toparis-Penning William Shrimpton