One of Ballarat's brightest young sporting talents has helped Australia to a gold medal in an international basketball competition at the weekend.
Ballarat Rush star Georgia Amoore along with fellow Victorian Casey Valenti-Paea, Shyla Heal from New South Wales and and South Australian Ruby Porter went undefeated in the 2019 FIBA 3x3 Under 18 Asia Cup in Malaysia.
3x3 basketball, which is one of the newest sports added to the Olympic line-up at Tokyo 2020, consists of four player teams with three players on the court and one on the bench.
Games are 10 minutes long, or played until one team scores 21 points. Shots inside the arch are worth one point while shots outside are worth two.
Australia, who entered the tournament as the seventh seed out of 14 teams, breezed through its opening pool games against Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
Amoore, 18, scored 11 points across the first two games, including outscoring Kazakhstan by herself 8-6 in Australian's first game of the tournament.
Following the group stage, Australia entered the single elimination portion of the tournament, besting Thailand 20-13 in the quarter finals. Amoore scored four points in the win.
Australia's next game would be its closest, coming away with a 15-12 semi-final victory against the Philippines.
Amoore came up big for the Green and Gold down the stretch of the game, scoring two of the team's final four points to secure the win.
Amoore had a quiet game in the grand final against Japan, scoring only two points in Australia's 21-10 win.
The tournament victory is sure to boost Amoore's confidence, who is currently finishing her final year of school at Loreto College. The guard will head to America in the coming months to visit colleges in hopes of securing a basketball scholarship.
FINAL STANDINGS
1 Australia, 2 Japan, 3 Philippines, 4 China, 5 New Zealand, 6 Thailand, 7 India, 8 Mongolia, 9 Kazakhstan, 10 Sri Lanka, 11 Malaysia, 12 Turkmenistan, 13 Chinese Taipei, 14 Maldives
