Crystal Blues’ Casey Griffiths and Ambassadors’ Caleb Carmen net maiden A-grade MVP honours

Skilful guard Casey Griffiths and veteran forward Caleb Carmen have won the major senior awards for the 2020-21 Albany Basketball Association A-grade season. Griffiths claimed her first women’s A-grade most valuable player award after a brilliant season with minor premiers Crystal Blues. To add to her terrific season, Griffiths also won the under-18 award. The 16-year-old played all 16 games in the regular season and registered double-figure points in 10 of those matches to poll 26 votes. Griffiths recorded a season-high tally of 29 points in round nine and averaged more than 12 points per game. Crystal Blues teammate Isabella De Giambattista had a fantastic year to finish runner-up on 21 votes, and Valkyries’ Macy Lane rounded out the top three after polling 17 votes from 10 games. Valkyries’ Indi Weeden and Raiders’ Abbi Gibson each polled 16 votes. Griffiths said the award was a bit of a surprise. “It’s pretty cool since I’m pretty young, I’m only 16 and I have just won MVP in A-grade,” she said. “I knew I played well but I didn’t expect to get MVP. “I expected Isi in Crystal Blues to get it.” Carmen claimed his first men’s A-grade MVP award after another prolific season with Ambassadors, who were knocked out in the first week of finals. The talented utility played 13 games in the regular season and finished as the competition’s leading scorer with 259 points at an average of 17.27. An offensive weapon who regularly scored double figures, Carmen polled 25 votes to win the top honour. Denmark Magpies big man Luke Wilson and Infernos’ Tyler Willmore finished joint runners-up with 19 votes and were followed by Sonics’ Kye Grittihs (17 votes), Tigers’ Mason Tion (17), Railways Tigers’ Kyle Smith (15), and Barking Owls’ Justin Benson (15). “It’s pretty cool to be named MVP — I think there are a lot of better younger kids but they didn’t actually play full seasons,” Carman said. “It’s probably my most consistent year and it’s the first time in five years I haven’t played with an injury. “I’ve played every season down here since 1996 and never won a grand final, so it’s a disappointing way to finish the season.” Barking Owls’ Jordi O’Neill claimed the Hayden Kirkwood Medal after receiving the most votes of any under-18 player with 14. Other award winners were Jackson Pitman (men’s B-grade division one), Matthew Jerrard (men’s B-grade division two), Rivah Bocian (men’s B-grade division three), Doug Roberts (men’s vets), Nakeesha Miniter (women’s B-grade division one) Jemma Quintrell (women’s B-grade division two) and Reini Henrickson (women’s vets).