DUBBO player Neve Tratt and coach Claire Hargreaves will return to Dubbo today with gold medals after their NSW side broke a 22-year hoodoo to take out the final of the School Sports Australia Basketball Championships in Townsville.
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Hargreaves' 12-years girls side beat Victoria 57-39 in the final yesterday to cap a week where they progressed through the tournament unbeaten.
The NSW side, made up of players from both the country and metropolitan areas, played eight matches in total, with their closest shaves being 13-point wins against Queensland and Victoria in the preliminary rounds.
"Things couldn't have gone any better all week," Hargreaves said.
"The girls did everything we asked of them and all of them got better as the tournament went on."
NSW opened their campaign with a 65-43 win over Northern Territory, and backed that up with a 55-28 victory over South Australia to cap the opening day.
They then rolled through Queensland (55-42), ACT (75-15), Western Australia (58-39) and Victoria (52-39) to finish top of the ladder at the end of the pool matches.
Those results set up a semi-final clash with South Australia, where they scored a similar result to their preliminary match, winning 54-27.
Victoria also won their semi-final, beating 72-52, setting up a rematch of the toughest match the NSW side had in the early stages of the competition.
After leading 24-19 at half-time of the final, the NSW side stepped up in defence to build a margin over their rivals before eventually running out 18-point victors.
"The pool game against Victoria was probably our toughest match so it was fitting we played them again in the final," Hargreaves said.
"The really pleasing part of this is that these girls will be friends for life now and it will probably be the last time they all play together unless they're in this squad again when they get to the under-18s.
"One of our girls came into the tournament with a torn knee ligament and needs to go under the knife, but we got her on the court three times in the tournament for about 30 seconds each time, including in the final, so to be able to do that was also very pleasing."