The Southern Cross Challenge (SCC) is a tournament open to Under-14 and Under-15, male and female teams from around Australia. The tournament brings together the brightest talent to compete against each other for the coveted perpetual trophy. The 2024 tournament saw teams from, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, and Queensland compete across four days at our newly developed home of Victorian basketball at the State Basketball Centre.
The tournament also offers the opportunity for our wheelchair athletes to get some game practise in before their National Championships (the Kevin Coombs Cup) held in Brisbane in April (alongside the Under-18 Nationals).
The focus of the tournament is to give the athletes, coaches, and officials the opportunity to experience a competitive atmosphere that they can learn and develop from, for the officials it is the opportunity to elevate their accreditations to become Level One referees and for our referee coaches to be accredited as Grade Two referee coaches.
Over the four days, more than 120 games of basketball were played, which culminated in the champions being decided on the final day of play - the Under-14 boys saw an all-Victorian final between Silver and Blue with Silver taking out the trophy and Western Australia rounding out third place. The Under-14 girls also had an all-Victorian grand final with the Goldminers taking out the win over Silver by a margin of only four points, with Victoria Blue beting South Australia Blue for third.
The Under-15 girls witnessed Western Australia take a convincing win over New South Wales Country and Queensland Maroon take third over South Australia Blue, the Under-15 boys Grand Final saw a heated exchange between Victoria Green and Queensland White, with Victoria eventually running out winners with Victoria Orange narrowly losing by one point to South Australia Red for third place.
2024 SCC Champions
- Under-14 boys – Victoria Silver
- Under-14 girls – Victoria Goldminers
- Under-15 boys – Victoria Green
- Under-15 girls – Western Australia
Without our officials we can’t play the game- congratulations to the following officials who were selected for the gold and bronze medal games:
U14 Girls Grand Final
Jaxon Zietz (Knox)
Oliver Becker (Darebin)
U14 Girls Final
Taj Lingam (Darebin)
Emily Crumpler (Ballarat)
U14 Boys Grand Final
Koby De Santis (Dandenong)
Ella Ward (Warrandyte)
U14 Boys Final
Oscar Vulikh (McKinnon)
Toby Fountain (WA)
U15 Girls Grand Final
Ashlyn Steers (WA)
Ava Cashmore (Pakenham)
U15 Girls Final
Charlie Schnitzler (Knox)
Toby Fountain (WA)
U15 Boys Grand Final
Kaylan Parker (Kilsyth)
Cleis Girdler (Keilor)
U15 Boys Final
Jayden Rule (Kilsyth)
Jack Vukadinovic (Western Port)
Click on the link to view the photos from the tournament.
