Broome wins country week basketball division two title

The Broome Basketball Association men’s representative team have won Western Australia’s country week division two title in only their second year at the competition. The group, made up of mostly casual players from the BRAC Wednesday league and led by former State coaching veteran Nick Linton, travelled to Perth over the Labour Day long weekend to test their skills against regional WA’s best, winning the division two title for the first time. Cutting the usual 18-week preparation period down to just two weeks, the team were able to stun their far more experienced opponents and make their way to the grand final against Esperance, which they won 51-39. Ezekiel Mckenzie, a well-known feature of the Wednesday night league, was grand final MVP, but coach Linton said the feat would not have been possible without the dedication of the whole team. “The one important thing about this group is they are all eager to learn, they love to play for each other, and they are clearly brothers on and off the court,” he said. “It’s really incredible to see them perform the way they did with limited representative matches available in the lead-up — they have done Broome proud. “I also want to thank Grant Astles and Sam Mastrolembo for the hours they dedicated to getting the team to the tournament.” Linton said the win was not just significant for the players, but for the association as a whole. “Basketball has been pretty casual in the Kimberley for a while now, but the last few years we’ve really started to see it grow,” he said. “After seeing the interest in country week and the success of representative teams, we’re going to build off this. “We want to put together a more serious league in Broome and start inviting representative teams from all over the North West to compete against us.” It was also the first time the association had sent two teams, with a seniors’ team proving age was no barrier, joining the third division and playing against teams much younger than them. It wasn’t just the players who made Broome proud, with Annie Dann and Josh Linton also signing up for the long haul to Perth to help officiate the event. Mr Linton was given the chance to referee the championship women’s match, while Ms Dann oversaw 10 games over the weekend and was evaluated for her level 1 qualification.