THEY were the dominant team during the three-round regular season and now the Bathurst Goldminers are officially the best in the west.
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The Bathurst-based club was too good for the Lithgow Lazers in Saturday's Rural Women's Basketball League grand final, thumping the visitors 109-40 at the Bathurst Indoor Sports Stadium.
Goldminers grasped hold of the game in the opening quarter and continued to build a comfortable lead throughout the match to ultimately win by 69 points.
It was a completely different game to the last time the two teams clashed, in the opening round, when Goldminers got home 64-48.
The two teams went neck and neck for three quarters, before Bathurst pulled away in the last quarter.
Goldminers team manager Mel Sullivan said it was a great result for the girls to win the grand final.
"We really did dominant the match," she said.
"Credit to Lithgow, they had fight there. But our scoreline kept growing and Lithgow's shots weren't dropping for them.
"When we played Lithgow last time, our girls hadn't played together and they had only had an hour practice shooting around on the court.
"After three games playing together, they've found their rhythm and have just dominated from there."
Even though it's been a short season, Sullivan said her team was thrilled to have won the grand final.
"For them, it was really good fun," she said.
"To be back in the sport they love is great. There is no other women's competition out here, for that level of basketball.
"So for them to play that standard of basketball, they've just really enjoyed it, being able to come together and do what they love."
Sullivan believes the competition will go ahead once again in 2024, which acts as a great season opener for the juniors.
Before the game on Saturday, I'm A Girl program was run, for anyone wanted to have a great at playing basketball.
The girls that participated in the event received free shirts, while a number of other players helping run the clinic.
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