'Really quite amazing': Bolts surpass expectations in grand final weekend

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The under 18s girls, under 18s boys, and under 14s boys division one teams all played in the finals on Sunday, but all came up short.

The two u18s teams, Tamworth Basketball president Scott Ward said, looked to be "a little bit flat" in their last games, which he suspects was the result of their defeats in the first semi-finals.

"The boys went down by about 30 and my girls went down by 20, and neither team had taken that sort of a hit through the course of the year," he said.

"They weren't quite able to back up the next day."

The 18s boys went down to Bellinger Valley Braves in the final, 88-71, while the 18s girls were sunk by the Port Macquarie Dolphins, 79-62.

The under 14s boys, meanwhile, only fell eight points short against the Central Coast Rebels, 47-39.

"At half time [the under 14s] were leading against a team that hadn't lost a game all year," Ward said.

"It really was quite amazing to see them compete in that game. They would have been disappointed with the final result, but they shouldn't be with the effort they put in."

Though they did not come away with a win in any of the grand finals, Ward said the association was "absolutely" thrilled with the efforts of its representative teams in 2022.

"Especially in this new combined league," he said.

"To have the likes of Newcastle, Gosford, and Maitland in the competition, it does make a stronger competition than we've dealt with in the past.

"To have five teams make it to grand final weekend and three in the grand finals was probably more than we could have asked for."

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