Dubbo basketballers star as Western Region enjoys Academy Games success

The Western Region Academy of Sport (WRAS) finished as the girls' champions while the boys' side finished with the silver medal.

It was a continuation of the success enjoyed both year, when both sides collected gold.

The girls were the standouts at the three-day carnival at Wagga and proved a class above their opposition throughout the pool stage and finals.

"The girls, they were just absolutely dominant. They were amazing," coach Claire Bynon said.

"The girls dominated and the closest anyone got to us was 25 (points) and that was Southern.

"We ended up playing Illawarra in the grand final and we beat them by 35 so the girls were just so good."

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Bynon said the efforts across the board were "huge", while praised the boys for their performances against some stiff competition.

"The boys had a tougher pool than the girls so they did extremely well. There's three Dubbo boys (in the team) and they're all bottom-age," Bynon added.

"Sam (Bynon-Hargreaves) and Cohen (Weir) are bottom-age and were in the starting five and that in itself is pretty awesome.

"They were exposed to some very, very good basketball and they ended up playing Southern Academy in the grand final and they were all top-ages.

"It was very physical and they only went down by 14."

Bynon-Hargreaves, Weir and Max Morton were the Dubbo players in the boys' side while Gilgandra's Lochy Nolan was also part of the squad.

Tully Pickering, Jazzy Gordon, Cyarah Hargraves, Clancy Toshack, Taylah Mongan, Kiara McKeown and Millie Sutcliffe flew the flag for Dubbo in the girls' side and were all a huge part of the gold medal win.

Proof of that was a number of selections in the post-carnival All Stars list.

Gordon, Pickering, McKeown and Sutcliffe were all named All Stars while the same went for Weir, Gilgandra's Nolan and Cooper Crowe from Mudgee.

"Overall, they were amazing," Bynon said.

"And they work hard. They do an extra two-and-a-half hours of skills I run with them. An hour on a Monday and an hour-and-a-half early on a Friday morning and the results are showing for them."

The beauty of the academy side of the sport is it provides a genuine pathway forward for the players while there is also more exposure.

Some elite coaches were part of the carnival at Wagga while current NSW country development coach Macsen Monk was one of the many interested spectators taking in the action.

"Our western kids, the girls are in JPL (Junior Premier League), but our other kids don't really have that opportunity to be seen as much," Bynon said.

"This gives them that opportunity, for three days, to play great basketball and be seen by so many coaches.

"There's a lot of state coaches involved in academies and that shows the standard and what we all think of it.

"We think this is pretty important and it's a great stepping stone."

With all Dubbo sides again advancing to next month's Western Junior League finals and a host of players starring during the recent Indigenous Community Basketball League, the academy efforts were the latest highlight.

As well as the players, Dubbo was also represented at Wagga by a number of coaches and team managers and Bynon said seeing the city's success and the pride that comes with that is something she doesn't tire of.

"Absolutely not," Bynon said.

"Cath Raidaveta, she's our WRAS manager, and she came along and looks after the teams and we were talking about just how proud we are of these kids.

"With a bit of hard work and commitment, you get the results if you put that work in.

"It makes us very happy to see our kids do well."

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