Basketball Geelong's under 18 boys (2) won the under 18A Grand Final at Ballarat, 43-38, after going into overtime locked at 35-all.

They had a shaky start to the tournament, losing to Keilor (3) (VJBL2) 33-42 and Diamond Valley (4) (VJBL4) 30-33 on the first day.

The second day though, they pulled up their socks, and thanks to some accurate shooting from the foul line, comfortably beat Werribee2 (VJBL3) in the qualifying final 45-33.

Geelong again faced Diamond Valley (4) in the semi's, winning by a scant three points, 42-39 to earn a place in the final.

There was a bit of a wait before playing the final, but after an alleged lunch of Subway and donuts, went back to the Minerdome for the final round.

They were a bit wound up at the start of the game (could’ve been the donuts...), but steadying words from Coach Rogers had a good effect, and they relaxed into it.

Although they trailed for the whole of the first half and cleared a sizeable margin to still be behind at half time (by 4 points), Coach Rogers said he was comfortable with their effort.

The players were thinking they’d done well to match a VC side, Keilor seemed a bit rattled...

After some definitive direction from Rogers and a breather in the half time break, Geelong opened with a three-pointer and never looked back.

They crunched the boards, denied every pass, and defended so strongly to make the room to get to within two points.

A timeout was called in the dying minutes, and what turned out to be a crucial substitution was made... said sub was fouled shooting a three on the final buzzer.

Remember, Geelong’s 2 points down...

*Gasp*

First basket, in.

Second basket, in.

Crowd takes a breath aaaaannd......

Third basket... in.

Geelong bench goes nuts!

Geelong crowd goes beserk!

REFEREE RULES THIRD BASKET A ‘NO SCORE’ – shooter stepped over the line!

O.M.G!!!!

Keilor bench goes nuts!

Keilor crowd goes beserk!

Geelong comment, “Who cares, bring on the over time!!”

And they did. Geelong’s effort in overtime was by far the dominant basketball of the whole game. They had cool heads, all of the play, and kept Keilor off the ball so well Keilor only scored three points to its eight.

Nobody cares (too much) that Miami lost and Dallas won, the Ballarat Tournament was where it was at.