IT took some composure in the tense dying seconds, but Bathurst talent Sara Matthews and her New South Wales team-mates held off a determined Victoria Blue to be crowned the Australian All Schools Basketball champions.
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In winning the 18 years and under girls decider 56-53 at Bendigo Stadium earlier this month, NSW not only claimed gold but finished the tournament undefeated.
For Matthews, who is in Year 12 at MacKillop College, it was a brilliant way to finish an Australian All Schools career which had already delivered a pair of gold medals in previous years.
"Yeah, that's three gold medals in a row. So both past years we'd been smashed by 30 during our round games then won the grand final, so it was a bit different this year," Matthews, who played on the wing said.
NSW did it comfortably through the pool rounds, beating Victoria Blue 63-57, ACT 89-31, Victoria White 118-80, Western Australia 83-58 then Queensland 58-38.
From there they down Queensland 93-71 in their semi-final and join Victoria Blue in the decider. With a gold medal on the line, NSW faced its biggest test of the tournament.
"They were definitely better in the final, it was a different game. They knew our offence and knew how to guard it better," Matthews said.
"It was really close, it was like one or two points the whole game. There was a minute and a half to go and we were up by six, but then they scored five points in a row. That made it a one-point game, but we got up by three in the end."
Matthews shot at 41 percent from the field and 77 percent from the stripe for the tournament as she averaged close to 10 points per game.
She pulled down 21 offensive and 30 defensive rebounds, made five blocks, 14 steals and 14 assists.
