BATHURST’S Emily Matthews and her NSW team exceeded their expectations by coming away with a silver medal from the Australian Under 20s Basketball Championships on Saturday.
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NSW went down to Victoria 85-60 in the decider but it couldn't wipe the smiles off the girls in blue who had enjoyed a strong competition at Bendigo.
Matthews said the atmosphere in team was positive at the tournament’s end.
“We were really happy with it. We went there with our goal being to make the top four, so to make the grand final was amazing,” she said.
“Making the grand final was also a really big weight off our shoulders because it meant that we were guaranteed a medal. If you lose your semi-final you go into the playoff for third, and there’s still a chance you won’t medal.”
NSW went toe-to-toe with Victoria for much of the final before the home side ran away with the contest.
The visitors lost two players due to foul trouble while two others came within a foul of also being out of the contest.
“We could have got ourselves a bit more in it but we ran out of legs in the second half,” Matthews said.
Matthews finished the match with five points, and with a competition best of 13 points, which came in the tournament opener against Queensland.
The hard-fought 69-66 over Queensland kick started a great campaign for NSW.
Victoria were too strong for Matthews’ team in their pool match, winning 61-51, but it was the last time NSW would go down before the the final.
NSW belted South Australia 81-52, held out Western Australia 68-61 and never let ACT into the hunt in a 56-42 result.
Those results took NSW to second spot on the table and set up a semi-final against the third-placed WA squad on Friday.
Matthews picked up a competition-high four rebounds and sunk six points in the strong 74-60 victory over the women from the west.
Making the experience all the better for the Bathurst player was the camaraderie in the NSW camp.
“They’re a great group of girls to play with. We gel really well on and off the court,” Matthews said.
NSW’s Cassidy Mclean was named tournament MVP.
Attention for Matthews now turns towards preparing for her debut South East Australia Basketball League (SEABL) season.
Matthews will line up with the new Sydney Uni Sparks side, the development squad for the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) side Sydney Uni Flames.
“I’ve moved down to Sydney now and we’ve begun our training for the SEABL season,” she said.
“The training is a bit intense but it’s something different and it’s exciting.”