Madison365’s girls’ basketball team took third in their 11 & Under division with two blowout wins and two one-point losses at the Amateur Athletic Union Summer Finale tournament in Stoughton over the weekend.
The team started the year with a 10-game unbeaten streak in the Middleton 3-on-3 summer league, then added players to compete in the full-sided tournament. They defeated Verona 28-11 on Saturday and lost 18-17 and 25-24 to two teams from Milwaukee’s 24:Up program, then bounced back with a 20-8 win over Wisconsin Academy.
“The girls did really well,” said coach Henry Sanders, who is also CEO of 365 Media, the publisher of Madison365. “(It was) our first time playing together in a tournament. Some of the girls have never played AAU. We lost by one point to two of the best teams in the state, and our team competed very well. We’ve only practiced maybe three or four weeks as a five-on-five team. I was just extremely happy with the effort.”
The team next heads to Wisconsin Dells August 12-13 for the Summer Sizzler Open.
“As long as the girls keep playing hard, we’ll be ok,” Sanders said. “It’s all about learning how to play together as a team. Our team is extremely athletic … Once you get more experienced as a team, more chemistry, we should be able to do really well.”
