VICTORIA has opened its account at the U20 Men’s National Championships in style, defeating Queensland by eight points on Tuesday morning.

In a game that was packed with talent, the Victorians were too good for the team from up north, getting their tournament off to a flyer with an impressive win despite a gutsy performance from highly touted prospect Roman Siulepa.

Although his team could not get over the line, the forward was superb against Victoria, posting 24 points on 8/20 shooting as he looked to put Queensland on his back. Siulepa looked to be physical wherever possible, and even chimed in for a pair of three-pointers to showcase his ability to stretch the floor. His team-high points total was accompanied with seven rebounds, six assists and two blocks, although the young gun was careless with ball in hand, recording seven turnovers as well thanks to his high usage rate.

Ballarat local Ned Renfree was Victoria’s best, producing a game-high 25 points by nailing eight of his 14 attempts from the field. The Wisconsin University signing was scoring across all three levels against Queensland, and went 3/7 from behind the arc. Remarkably, he did all of this in just 19 minutes of action, coming off the bench with a match-winning cameo.

Rising star Luke Fennell was also amongst the action for the winning side, although he was inefficient from the field. He posted 12 points, four rebounds and three assists on 4/15 shooting, and will still have a crucial role to play in the tournament going forward.

In the other games to take place on Tuesday, Victoria Navy overcame a 41-point outing from Jacob Furphy to claim a 111-100 win over Tasmania in a high-scoring encounter. The Tasmanian shot 15/23 from the field to go with eight rebounds and four assists in a heroic showing that was worthy of a win, although his side fell 11 points short.

An excellent all-around performance from point guard Steven Hall helped New South Wales to a 10-point win over Western Australia. Although it was a low-scoring, scrappy affair, Hall was popping up everywhere, producing 16 points (7/15 FG), seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals in the win for his side.

The final match of the day saw New South Wales Blue prove nine points too good for the Australian Capital Territory when the two sides locked horns. It was a balanced team performance from the victors that got the job done, while Dante Bruton was a one-man army for the ACT with 21 points on 7/13 shooting.