By Gerardo Bolong
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Enter the dragons. Visiting Newington College of Australia showed off its international talents in all phases of fundamentally strong basketball in a 77-41 runaway against Foster of Tukwila on Mon., Jan. 4.
Newington College is a Boys K-12 Day and Boarding School located in Stanmore in the heart of Sydney's Inner West and displays the wyvern as its school symbol.

The wyvern is a legendary winged creature with a dragon's head, a reptilian body, two legs and a barbed tail. The wyvern, drawing its roots from 16th century times, is important to heraldry and is a popular mascot for athletic teams (especially in the United Kingdom and the United States). Newington is one of the founding members of the GPS, an alliance of Sydney independent boys' schools.

As part of the pregame activities, the Australian team sang their national anthem while their country flag was displayed at mid court. Then, the teams exchanged gifts.

Once the game got underway, Freddie and Ronnie Roberson helped the Bulldogs stay with the Wyverns early by combining for six consecutive Foster points and a 12-9 first quarter margin.

The well-schooled Wyverns started cleaning the glass and transitioning regularly to a 20-3 run and 24-9 lead.

All the Newington athletes displayed sharp passing skills and the ability to share the ball while consistently finding the open man in their fast-moving half court offense.

Six-foot, seven inch Chier Maker and six-foot, five-inch Makuach Maluach were players that also rebounded, ran the floor and passed well.

Behind these two and an excellent and well drilled supporting cast, Newington pulled away to leads of 28 points twice in the first half plus leads of more than 30 in the second half with the greatest lead of 37 points before the final buzzer.

Maker created many opportunities inside, but also displayed a sweet outside shooting touch -- including 3-point ability -- for 29 points. Maluach showcased an excellent eye, passing for assists, besides slamming two-handed dunks mixed with short range jumpers en route to 20 points.

Freddie and Ronnie Roberson totaled 13 points each for Foster.

"They're a heck of a team," said Bulldog head coach Isaac Tucker. "I knew they'd be good, but they were even better than we thought they'd be. It was fun for our kids. They got a chance to experience a different style of basketball, but also get to know some people from a different culture."

While the event was a basketball game, the experiences transcended the athletics.

Darryl and Tanya Goodwin are the parents of Newington player Jaidyn Goodwin and were making their first trip along with a strong block of Newington parents and friends.

"We enjoy watching good competition," said Darryl.

"Everyone we've met were such nice people," added Tanya. "The scenery is beautiful."

For Wyvern head coach Rex Nottage, it was another chance to tour and visit new and familiar places plus talk with friends from previous trips.

"We want the boys to get the whole experience of American culture," he said. "We have 1,200 students. Recently, we did well in the National Schools Basketball Championships and we tour to the USA very two years and in the off-years we go to Asian areas, such as China. As well as good basketball, we want the boys to go to college and experience good camaraderie. This is my third trip to the Washington-Oregon area. The last time we were in the Seattle area was 2009. We've also been to Foster before. Mark Morris is another area we like to revisit. We've been to Chelan, Enumclaw and other great places."