IF you had have offered St Joseph’s Regional College a fourth-place finish at last week’s National School’s Basketball Championships in Melbourne, they would have taken it.
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But upon reflection, coach Jason Berry was disappointed they had the ability to finish higher than that at the week-long tournament.
Their 7/8 girls team were defeated 47-44 in the bronze-medal playoff on Friday to Hillcrest Freshmen which relegated them to fourth overall.
While disappointed not to get the results from their efforts, Berry wasn’t disappointed at the performance which saw them finish with four wins and four losses.
“I felt were the second-best team in the competition, we just couldn’t quite get it together at the same time,” he said.
Berry admitted the Maribyrnong Jets were easily the best team of the tournament which was signified by them taking out the title.
He said most of the other teams had one or two players who scored the majority of their points, but the Port Macquarie school was dependent on a consistent effort across the board.
“One thing that stood out for me was that most of the other schools had one or two players who were dominant and scored a lot of their points,” he said.
“We were certainly up there and in the mix, but the girls probably struggled mentally with the week-long tournament.
“They all had fantastic spurts at different times, but we struggled to get all 10 of the girls playing well at the same time.
“It’s a little bit different to just playing the one game of basketball where you can go all-out.”
The coach felt his side were “very good physically”, but the mental side took its toll by the end of the fifth day.
“Six or seven of the girls had never played in a week-long tournament for basketball before so it was a learning curve for them,” he said.
“They all found out how resilient they all were with the challenges that come from such a tournament.
“Hopefully the girls learn from the tournament and they will be better for it.”
Berry said the team didn’t set any goals or expectations of their trip – instead focusing on enjoying the experience.
“We didn’t set any goals before we headed away, we were just really determined to take everything as it came,” he said.
“If you had have offered us a top four finish at the start of the tournament we would have been over the moon.”
