ANOTHER strong year of basketball has seen Bathurst's Sara Matthews return to the NSW Under 20s representative side for the second consecutive season.
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Matthews was the sole Central West representative named across this year's men's and women's 20s teams who will be off to Mackay, Queensland, for the Australian Under 20s Championships over May 3 to 7.
NSW will be send two teams to the upcoming nationals as they try to disrupt Victoria's stranglehold on the women's title.
Having been a crucial part of NSW's previous nationals venture in Canberra Matthews will no doubt be a focal point for the NSW White squad heading into a new campaign.
Matthews wants to help the NSW teams make a statement.
"Since I was one of the few bottom age players to make the team last year I was pretty confident about making it back into the team," she said.
"We had a trial with around 40 girls, then after a second trial it got cut down to 25. We then went to the Shirley Gorman Invitational. We played against other teams that had some WNBL girls in them as a selection process.
"But due to COVID we weren't able to do any more trials so they just ended up picking the teams based on those games."
The Bathurst junior will be keen to build upon her encouraging performance at the previous nationals.
Matthews finished last year's fourth place run with 10.7 points per game and two steals per game alongside fellow Bathurst star Matilda Flood.
The Bathurst talent will be playing alongside a new-look NSW White squad.
The four other returning players from her 2019 NSW team all feature in the NSW Blue side.
It's expected to be a busy nationals campaign this year as state's send extra players to Queensland to make up for previous lost tournament play.
"This year they wanted to try and take two teams from every state," Matthews said.
"The under 18s got cancelled last year so they want to try and give those girls another go."
Many of those younger players find their way into Matthews' White team, which acts as the second string squad.
Victoria have won the last three women's competitions at the Australian Under 20s National Championships, a were the victors in last year's grand final 69-56 against Queensland.
NSW won four of their six matches at last year's championships, losing in the bronze medal match.
Matthews will be using the upcoming Waratah League competitions to keep herself match fit and dialled in for nationals.
"I haven't been doing too much this year outside of playing with the Central Coast Crusaders," she said.
"I'll be doing both the championship women and the youth league women competitions."
The Waratah Women's Championship and Women's Youth League gets underway for Matthews on April 10 when the Crusaders play host to the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles at Terrigal.
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