Basketball Australia is pleased to once again acknowledge the tremendous support from the Australian Commonwealth Games Association (ACGA) through the “NextGEN” AusComGames Squad program.
The ACGA funding was utilised during the 2015 year to help support both of the Under 19 National Representative Teams, the Emus and Gems, in their FIBA World Championship campaigns.
The Gems were extremely impressive in taking out the bronze medal at the FIBA World Championships in Russia. Losing only to the host country, the Gems finished 6 – 1, and beat Spain for the bronze.
Alana Smith was named to the All Star Five team at the championships and showed she is well and truly in the mix for Opals selection at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, as are a number of other Gems players.
The Emus meanwhile finished the FIBA under 19 World Championships for men in Greece in 7th place with a 3 -4 loss record. The young and relatively inexperienced Emus showed promise beating Serbia in the round of 16, and Canada in the 7th and 8th placed classification game.
“Both of these junior national teams have a load of talent and are evidence of the great work that is done in our state high performance network in coaching, developing, and preparing these athletes to represent Australia on the global stage,” said Basketball Australia CEO Anthony Moore.
“Many of these athletes are also athletes in residence at the BA Centre of Excellence, where Emus and Gems head coaches, Adam Caporn and Paul Goriss have the opportunity to work with these players on a daily basis in a world class daily training environment.”
“BA wants to thank the Commonwealth Games Association once again for their support of basketball and the development of these younger athletes. It is great that basketball is back on the Comm Games event schedule and we are looking forward to defending our gold medal winning performance at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006, the last time basketball was in the Games”.
In the spirit of reconciliation Basketball Australia acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.