The Penrith U14 Girls team. Photo supplied by Jeff Cooper. Photo courtesy of Sports in Focus.
BACK ROW: Angela Auva’a (manager), Jeff Cooper (head coach), Jaeda Petterson, Audrey Edwards, Paige Bush, Jaleah Harris,
Carolyn Hennessy, Allain Acuna (assistant coach), Greg Petterson (assistant coach).
FRONT ROW: Briar Auva’a, Rainne Acuna, Merkita Jaeger, Ruby Gleeson Frater, Elsie Alvarez
THE Penrith Basketball Association’s Under 14 Girls representative team has qualified for the upcoming Australian U14 Club Championships, which will be held in Willetton (WA) over the 28th September – 3rd October. They will be joined in WA by the Bankstown Bruins, Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and Illawarra Hawks as the four qualifying Girls’ teams from NSW.
This will be the 7th time a Penrith Girls team has qualified for the National Club Championships since its inception in 1996, including a consecutive 3-year run from 2023-2025.
Coincidentally, head coach Jeff Cooper will be making his second appearance at the Club Championships, having taken the Penrith U14 Boys to the first tournament in 1996.
This will be the second interstate trip for the Penrith girls this year, having also attended the Nunawading tournament in June, where they narrowly missed out on a grand final berth on a countback.
Their most recent success came at the playoff series for the 2025 Junior Premier League (JPL), where they finished runners-up to the Bankstown Bruins.
The young Panthers fell 51-45 to the Bruins on Friday night, before defeating the Newcastle Falcons 57-39 and the Maitland Mustangs 51-39 on Saturday to qualify for the semi-finals. Penrith went on to defeat Norths Bears 36-24 to win through to the grand final, where they again faced the Bruins, falling 47-34.
Head coach Jeff Cooper said, “We lost by 13 but the girls tried their hardest, which is all I could ask for. Runner-up for the season is still a very pleasing result.
The team is now fund-raising for the trip and anyone interested in assisting can click on the QR code on this page.
The Penrith Basketball Association also hosted the 2025 Mitsubishi Motors Women’s and Men’s NBL1 East grand finals at the Penrith Valley Regional Sports Centre on Saturday, with the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles defeating the Centre of Excellence 89-61 in the women’s game and the Canberra Gunners defeating the Illawarra Hawks 99-91 in the men’s game.
The Sea Eagles were on an 18-game winning run leading into the grand final and showed their class with a dominant first half, leading 51-24 at half time and then pacing the Centre of Excellence through the second half to claim a 28-point win.
Taylor Wurtz (Sea Eagles) was named Grand Final MVP, on the back of 25 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Illawarra and Canberra put on a closer contest for the fans in the second game of the night, with the margin remaining in single figures through three tight quarters, before the Gunners led 72-71 heading into the final term.
With three grand final appearances in the last four years, the Gunners showed the benefit of that experience to outperform the Hawks in the final quarter to secure an 8-point win.
Derek Emelifeonwu (Canberra) was named Grand Final MVP, finishing with 28 points, four rebounds and three assists.
