By JARROD POTTER
DANDENONG Rangers’ rising star centre Lauren Scherf has possibly the most hectic basketball schedule in Australia, but loves her time representing team, state and country.
Scherf, 17, tore up the court at the Australian Junior Basketball Championships in Perth last week, guiding Victoria to the championship with an 87-64 win against New South Wales on the back of 33 points and a massive 16 rebounds in the grand final.
Her success in the under-20 women’s division was justified by the tournament officials, awarding her the most valuable player (MVP) of the tournament on the back of her six-match tournament average of 20 points, 11.3 rebounds and two assists per game.
“I wanted to win – as after my last two years coming third and coming fourth I didn’t want to lose again,” Scherf said.
“The whole week was really good – it was really enjoyable being with all the girls and celebrating our win.”
“I definitely enjoyed getting named MVP – that was a massive shock – I remember when my name got called out and when I was walking out there I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face and all my friends from the different states were cheering and clapping and I was so overwhelmed by everything and I just loved it.”
Backing up immediately from last Saturday night’s success, Scherf boarded a midnight flight to get back to Melbourne in time to suit up for the Rangers in its semi-final against Bendigo Spirit in Bendigo on Sunday afternoon.
“It was good – the nationals bit – I loved that – but getting on a 12am flight and getting back for the final was pretty stressful, but we got there,” Scherf said.
“At the start I didn’t know what I was doing – thought I’d just miss out on that final because Rachel Antoniadou also had to come back with me – but our state coach Jonathan Goodman is also the assistant coach for Bendigo, so he must’ve called up Mark Wright and asked if he wanted us to come back with him and he did.
While the results didn’t favour Dandenong in Bendigo – downed by the Spirit 71-62 in the semi-final – Scherf has relished her first big season with the group and has learned rapidly off the likes of Jenna O’Hea, Kayla Pedersen and Brigitte Ardossi.
“I’ve enjoyed it quite a lot – being with the older girls and giving me the confidence and learning off them – as they have much more experience than me – has made my game much better and made me see different perspectives of the game I would never have thought of before,” Scherf said.
Her basketball has also taken her to New Zealand late last year, representing Australia and winning gold in the FIBA Pacific Championships and earned a call-up to the Australian Opals squad and training camp held in January.
College basketball remains an option for Scherf heading into this all-important final year of junior basketball, but she hasn’t decided on what colleges might be on her shortlist or if she will head over at all.
For more on Dandenong’s WNBL preliminary final clash with Townsville, turn to Sport page 68.
