BASKETBALL
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ANOTHER product of the Dubbo Junior Basketball system has achieved great success in recent times, with Rebekah Dallinger's Northern Suburbs side recently winning an Australian club title.
Dallinger and her family packed up and left Dubbo last year in an effort to progress her basketball and netball careers, and the move is already reaping dividends.
The Norths under-14 girls went to the Australian National Championships with modest hopes as a NSW side had not tasted success in the competition's 32-year history.
But after progressing to the final the side was matched up against Victorian side Knox.
"The girls had a goal of making the top four. All the favoured teams - Dandenong, Bulleen and Knox - were all from Victoria," Kristy Dallinger said
"Bek's team went through their pool with one loss and my sister Caroline had a chat with Bek to try and get her to play with more confidence.
"Claire (Hargreaves) also sent messages through to try and inspire her and after that the side dominated the crossovers against Dandenong and Perry Lakes to advance to final four."
With a win over Dandenong behind them Norths then claimed another big scalp, beating Bulleen 38-33, however the competition was put on notice when Knox rolled past Newcastle Hunters 77-29 to set up their place in the decider.
"At stages throughout the match the girls were down by 11 but somehow the girls rallied and by the end of the normal time the score was even at 55-all," Dallinger said.
"After three minutes of extra time the score was still tied at 59-all so it went into double-overtime and thankfully Bek and her team were strong and ran out winning 67-59.
"It was great because Bek got the win in the tournament but Caroline and my niece Krystal also came up to spend the whole week with us which was nice.
"We haven't spent much time together since we moved, as opposed to the several times a day we saw and spoke to each other when we lived in Dubbo."