Last weekend saw 350 young basketball players from all over Essex descend upon the Riverside Ice & Leisure Centre in Chelmsford to represent their District in the Essex Youth Games Basketball Tournament, which was sponsored by BAA Stansted.

There were four competitions, Under 13 Boys and Under 13 Girls on Saturday and Under 15 Boys and Under15 Girls on Sunday.

All the competitions were hotly contested with the Under 13 Boys and the Under 15 Girls in particular providing the highest standard of basketball.

Those two age groups also provided the closest finals.

In the Under 13 Boys final between Southend and Basildon & Brentwood, the teams were never more than three points apart at any stage, and in the end it was a basket from Michael Allen that gave Southend the lead at the final buzzer, thus giving them a superb 31-29 win.

In the Under 15 Girls final between Castle Point & Rochford and Basildon & Brentwood there was more excitement as the two high quality teams played some fine basketball.

Basildon & Brentwood established an early seven point lead and kept that lead until the last quarter when a huge effort from Castle Point & Rochford brought them level at 26-26 with just three minutes remaining.

Basildon & Brentwood kept their composure despite the tremendous pressure and after two consecutive baskets from Laura Hadjiconstandis in the last minute, they held on for a 33-26 victory.

In the Under 13 Girls final, Colchester & Tendring beat Basildon & Brentwood 21-11 and in the Under 15 Boys final, Castle Point & Rochford overcame Chelmsford & Maldon 26-18.

Tournament organiser Paul May said: "I was delighted with the response from the eight districts, and all but two of them managed to field a team in every competition which gave us an unprecedented 30 teams taking part.

"The overall quality of play was excellent as was the standard of sportsmanship, but perhaps the most pleasing thing for me was the fact that there were four different winning districts and this augurs well for the future of basketball in Essex.

"I thank our sponsors BAA Stansted who funded the whole event incuding T-shirts for all players, coaches and officials, medals for winners and runners-up and expenses for all officials and coaches."

The results were: Under 13 Girls: (1st) Colchester & Tendring; (2nd) Basildon & Brentwood; (3rd) Thurrock; (4th) Chelmsford & Maldon; (5th) Castle Point & Rochford; (6th) Southend. Under 13 Boys: (1st) Southend; (2nd) Basildon & Brentwood; (3rd) Chelmsford & Maldon; (4th) Castle Point & Rochford; (5th) Colchester & Tendring; (6th) Thurrock; (7th) Braintree & Uttlesford; (8th) Epping Forest & Harlow. Under 15 Girls: (1st) Basildon & Brentwood; (2nd) Castle Point & Rochford; (3rd) Chelmsford & Maldon; (4th) Colchester & Tendring; (5th) Southend; (6th) Braintree & Uttlesford; (7th) Thurrock; (8th) Epping Forest & Harlow. Under 15 Boys: (1st) Castle Point & Rochford; (2nd) Chelmsford & Maldon; (3rd) Basildon & Brentwood; (4th) Southend; (5th) Colchester & Tendring; (6th) Braintree & Uttlesford; (7th) Epping Forest & Harlow; (8th) Thurrock.

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