Basketball Geelong under 16 girls’ team tasted success after winning the Ballarat Tournament over the Queen's Birthday long weekend.

Playing in the Division One competition, the girls had good wins over Broadmeadows and Craigieburn in Saturday's preliminary rounds. 

However, a slight hiccup on Sunday, with a close loss to Altona, saw the team rethinking its strategy for the remaining games. 

The team faced Broadmeadows again on Sunday night in the semi-final, and after a competitive first half, and a change up in defence, saw the girls pull away for a comfortable 20 plus point win.

The girls then faced a surprising semi-final winner in Craigieburn in the Grand Final on Monday.  The more skilled Geelong team came out firing and shot away to a handy 10 point lead early in the half. 

Some fine work at both ends of the floor from season surprise packet Bronte Burke and a constant turnover of scoreboard pressure from Zoe Dixon, allowed us to take a good lead into the second half. 

After half time, we decided to relax a bit and allowed Craigieburn to come back into the game. 

The margin got down to five points with a couple of minutes left to play, and despite going to the foul line regularly, we just could not put away a dogged opposition. 

However, some poise down the stretch from game MVP Sarah Welfare proved the difference in the end and the girls won out by four points.

"The the girls showed a lot of character on the weekend and thoroughly deserved their win," coach Trevor Newcombe said.

"It is a credit to their hard work and dedication, and a commitment to a very good Geelong representative programme. 

The girls are a very close knit team, and played for each other”.

Many thanks to all of the fantastic parents who acted as a great support crew for the weekend. 

The team consisted of Jessie Christiaans, Bronte Burke, Sarah Welfare, Nikki Peacock, Zoe Dixon, Alysha Farnsworth, Stacey Geelhoed, Mikaela Watson, Stephanie Boyce and captain Emma Klaassen.