The Byron Bay Beez basketball U/16 girls’ team has qualified for the NSW Division-1 State Cup after their grand final appearance in the North East Junior League.
The Beez had three junior representative teams qualify for the finals this season which were held in Tamworth on July 22-23.
The U/16 girls and boys teams and the U/18 girls all finished third after the rounds at Tamworth.
The teams went on to get wins in their first finals against the fourth-placed teams. The U/16 girls defeated Port Macquarie, and the other two teams defeated their Tamworth opponents.
But the U/18 girls lost their grand final against Central Coast 60-65.
Thea Mills-Crockford top scored for the Byron team with 17 points for the game.
The U/16 boys lost their grand final against Port Macquarie 70-84, with Seth Landers top scoring for Byron with 17 points as well.
The U/16 girls played their second final against the second-placed Newcastle team and came out victorious 71-65, in a heart-stopper to get into the grand final.
Isabel Tieppo was the leading scorer for the game with a whopping 37 points for the Byron Beez in a very impressive display, and point guard Candice Pinto scored 24, including three clutch free throws in the final 25 seconds to win the game.
The girls then faced a strong Central Coast team who had been undefeated all season, in the grand final.
The Byron team put up a strong fight, but Central Coast ran away big winners with a final score of 45-98.
Tieppo and Pinto were again the top scorers for the team, with 16 and 17 points respectively.
‘In all three games the girls played with a very high level of skill, determination and courage. Winning the first two finals in close games while having players unavailable and injured, showed how they work as a team to achieve a fantastic result. Thanks go to everyone who supported us,’ Byron Beez head coach Gary Lucas said after the game.
The results qualified the team for the NSW State Cup to be held on the Central Coast this weekend.
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