George, a 15-year-old year 10 student at Kelso High Campus, was the only Bathurst player in a Western team that featured basketballers from West Wyalong, Lithgow and Orange.

And while a majority of her teammates and opponents at the three-day carnival in Maitland, that run from May 4-6, were several years older then her, she managed to impress at the tournament, as Western ultimately finished seventh.

"The coach said the award was for the consistency of how I played and how I was always being able to help out when needed," George explained.

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"I was very happy with it but I wasn't expecting it, especially as there was an under 18s state age player in the team."

George and Western opened their championships account with a 70-69 win over Riverina before a 90-37 loss to Sydney West on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Western suffered two losses - to Sydney South West and Sydney North - before a 65-64 win over North Coast on Friday, in what was a seventh-place play-off.

"We played well together, clicking together quite well. It was good fun," George said.

"Everyone had their bursts and good moments.

"It felt really good to be able to compete at that level, with all the skills up there and the good teams."

While George said the tournament was a great experience, she said the competition was quite tough, especially against the Sydney teams that get the opportunity to train multiple times a week, compared to Western which didn't even get to train together beforehand due to the large distance between players' hometowns.

"All the Sydney teams were really tough to play because they're so strong and they all have training. We just have to jump in when we've never played together with each other," she said.

"It was good because they never expect much of us country girls out here but we're just as good. We gave it to them."

Hunter would win the NSW Combined High Schools Girls Basketball Championships after defeating Sydney North in the gold medal play-off 68-58.

A 10-player NSW Combined High School squad was selected after the tournament finished last week, which will compete at the Australian Schools Championships later this year.

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