ST John Paul College Coffs Harbour girls basketball team have won the Lismore Diocese Open Basketball Championships in Port Macquarie.

The girls were blistering in the early rounds beating all comers by significant margins, with the competition involving four preliminary games, followed by a final between the top two teams.

The girls were dominant in the preliminary rounds, beating St Joseph’s Regional 62-4, St Mary’s Casino 65-8, St John’s Woodlawn 54-14, and Newman College Port 76-8.

The girls came up against St John’s College Woodlawn in the final, where they continued to be focused in attack and relentless in defence, winning 43-17.

Their coach, Mrs Trish Firey, praised their performance.

“They are an amazing group of young athletes who consistently demonstrate teamwork, dedication to achieving their best, and loyalty to their teammates,” she said.

“The ladies’ conduct on and off the court has shown them to be great ambassadors for our college.”

The team now moves on to face the top schools from across the state in the NSW Combined Catholic Colleges Championships in Port Macquarie on 29 and 30 May.

The boys team also attended and were dominant in their pool matches, easily winning the pool.

They won all four of their preliminary matches, beating St Joseph’s Regional, Port Macquarie 49-17, Mt St Patrick Murwillumbah 44-32, St John Woodlawn 43 – 9, and St Mary’s Casino 32 -7.

Despite their strong showing in the rounds, they were not able to overpower MacKillop Catholic College Port Macquarie going down 49 – 28 in the cross over semi-final.

Despite missing out on the finals, coach Mr Steven Verbruggen was proud of the boys.

“We had a little bit of bad luck with results in the other pool which meant we came up against regular rivals MacKillop earlier than we’d liked,” he said.

“Although the boys fought hard until the end and never dropped their heads, we were ultimately outplayed.

“Maeson La Rosa inspired and led from the front, driving hard at the defence to make numerous clutch points.

“The Open boys team played solidly and represented us with pride and distinction.”

By Aiden BURGESS