OLD habits die hard.
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Just ask former Warrnambool representative basketballers Amy Wormald and Holly Greene.
The pair, along with a group of friends from their junior Country Victoria squad days, yesterday took out the women’s A reserve grand final at the Warrnambool Seaside Basketball Carnival.
Both Wormald and Greene are based in Melbourne and are about to play for different Big V division one teams when the new season starts in March.
But Wormald, who plays for Geelong, cobbled the side, known as Melo Yellow, together.
Melo Yellow defeated Melbourne Uni Black 41-31 in a tight final at Warrnambool Stadium yesterday.
Wormald was joined in the side by Geelong teammates Emily Koroneos and Jess Watson, Geelong SEABL guard Cortney Williamson and another Geelong resident Shayna Poto, who has connections to Warrnambool.
“We just thought we would come down and have a bit of fun,” Wormald said.
“We wanted to win.”
But enjoyment was the number one priority.
“We’ve just started back training. We thought we would have a run and get our eye in and have a blow out really,” she said.
“We went into it just fluffing around in our first game but we are obviously very competitive and had a chat and would run some plays. As soon as we would get on the court, we would have white-line fever. We couldn’t not take it seriously.”
It was 23-year-old Wormald’s first triumph in the tournament, having played it many times as a junior.
It was also the first time she had been reunited with Greene on court since they played in the Warrnambool Mermaids’ title-winning side more than five years ago.
Greene said the opportunity to join her former teammates from years past was too good to miss.
“We were having a good time off the court. Once we were on the court we were serious,” she said.
“It was more just about getting a group together and having some fun.”
They were having fun early yesterday in the final before they found themselves two points down with 13 minutes to play.
“We decided to get really serious,” Greene said.
“We tried really hard.”
It was Greene’s second victory at her home tournament, having played with the Mermaids in a successful team a few years ago.
Melo Yellow’s victory came after another Warrnambool side, Parker, won the B grade title.
Led by former Mermaids coach Katie O’Keefe, Parker defeated Ballarat side PLH 50-30.
Parker featured a number of O’Keefe’s family members, including mum Marg Davis and sister Susie, Mermaid Renae Tuck, former Mermaid Emma Rodgers, Cristy McCluskey, Tamika Kelson, Rach Day and Jess O’Connor.
O’Keefe’s husband Simon and her brother Jason Davis led another Warrnambool side, BAHS Eyebrows Last Stand in B grade, but it was defeated by Heathens, a Melbourne side.
Heathens completed a gruelling weekend of 15 matches, winning the masters grade and the pool A B grade title against the local combination.
Melbourne side Breakaway won the top- grade men’s game.
Warrnambool Basketball Inc senior committee chairman Tim Rayner was pleased with the weekend’s event.
“There was a lot of fun, there was a lot of high standard basketball being played,” he said.
Numbers were slightly down on last year but he said organisers were working to lift entries.