Warrnambool Mermaids' under 12s win Basketball Victoria Country championship

The Kate Sewell-coached roster became the first Warrnambool under-12 girls side since 1998 to work its way to number one.

The 1998 roster featured Holly Greene and Amy Wormald who went on to win Big V titles with the Mermaids' senior team.

"We were pretty excited. It's only the third time Warrnambool has won the under-12 division one competition," Sewell said.

"Because we won we'll get invited to the National Junior Classic in Melbourne over the long weekend in June.

"We went down to Southern Peninsula in November and played Melbourne Tigers and we'll now likely come up against them in the classic, so it will be a good challenge."

Warrnambool went through the Victoria Country titles in Bendigo undefeated.

The competition split teams into divisions one, two, three and four divisions after the opening day's play.

The Mermaids survived challenges in Sunday's knockout games to progress to the grand final against Traralgon.

Sewell said they defeated Wodonga convincingly in their quarter-final before beating Geelong in a tough semi-final.

They took confidence into the decider, recording a 57-29 win over Traralgon.

"It was the fourth time we'd played them this year," she said.

"We played them the day before as well. Our depth gave us a few more legs."

Sewell said Eve Covey, who scored 34 points in the grand final, and Poppy Myers were the competition's leading scorers.

She said they made their presence felt in the decider.

"It was a really good team effort and we looked to our bigs. They were our point of difference," she said.

"They are strong and have good ball-handling skills. We went inside a bit to them."

Olivia Lenehan, Shelby O'Sullivan, Satu Johnstone, Lucy McLaren, Indigo Sewell, Rosie Bowman and Indi O'Connor made up the winning team.

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