Basketball: Tamworth Thunderbolts take positives out of narrow qualifying final defeat

After a slow start, they strung together several admirable winning streaks, produced multiple nailbiting victories, and even managed to sink a three-pointer on the buzzer to snatch a late win.

And to cap off their first season in the competition since 2019, they qualified for finals.

At the start of the season, coach Kane Butler expected 2023 to be a rebuilding year and hoped they would challenge and perhaps surprise some of the top teams.

So when they fell to an 87-81 loss at the hands of the Canberra Gunners Academy in the qualifying final on Saturday night, the Thunderbolts were disappointed of course, but already looking forward to what the future held.

"It's never good to lose in finals, but in the same light, I'm very proud of the boys," Butler said.

Also read:

"It's the first year for a lot of them, so you take the experience that they've had, and they'll be better for it next year ... we want to come in and do even better. And I think, after we lost, the boys were pretty excited for next season. They just want to get back into it."

Ultimately, it was the team's longstanding weakness in rebounding that proved most costly in Canberra.

Having beaten the hosts earlier in the year while seriously undermanned, the Thunderbolts were shaky this time around and produced an inconsistent performance.

"We gave up a lot of offensive boards, and it takes a toll," Butler said.

"I just don't think we're very good at that, that's something that we need to fix."

After letting Canberra get out to a 15-point lead in the third quarter, Tamworth reeled them back in during the fourth to trail by as little as two with a handful of minutes on the clock.

But it was not to be, and Butler said the better team won on the night.

"Canberra are a very good side, and they're well-run, and unfortunately it didn't go our way," he said.

More importantly, Butler was pleased with the tight-knit culture the squad established this year.

And he made note of the support from the Tamworth fanbase, which he said was "amazing".

"You go downtown and people know what's going on in the state league team," Butler said.

"That's something that the boys have had to get used to, and they've been loving it."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: