Basketball
By
Lt Michael Wicks
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A
Queensland player comes down with the rebound during the
match against WA at Randwick Barracks.
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Photo:
WOFF Ray Bennell
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NSW
took both the men’s and women’s finals at the ADFBA
Combined Services Basketball Championships, held at Randwick Barracks
recently.
All states except Tasmania fielded a team in the tournament, which
marked the 20th anniversary of Combined Services Basketball, with
SA and ACT combining to field a side in the women’s draw.
Queensland, renowned for having a strong team each year, played
well against other good sides but had some close encounters with
the weaker teams.
The finals in the men’s and women’s game were both contested
between WA and NSW.
The women’s final was played first and was a hard fought
match.
NSW started the game well, but struggled to find form through
the middle of the game, allowing WA to open up a lead midway through
the second half.
NSW dug deeper and began applying more pressure to the WA side,
and through a good team effort with everyone contributing pulled
themselves back into the game and ran away to win in the dying
minutes.
The men’s was played next, in their first encounter WA came
out firing and opened up a 10-point lead early.
This time however the tables were turned and the NSW team utilised
their depth to lead by 15 points at the first break and 25 at
the half.
The lead was further extended in the third quarter and almost
hit 40 points, but the experienced WA side went down fighting,
playing hard to the end and pulling themselves back to under 20
points late in the fourth quarter.
Despite their gallant efforts, WA were unable to overcome the
strong NSW team, which eventually won by 26 points.
