It was a golden day for four Boomers at the 2012 School Sport Australia (SSA) Nationals at Dandenong Stadium on Friday as the girls 12 & under and the girls 18 & under Victorian State teams both claimed the Championship game and the Gold Medal for TeamVic after a week of exciting and hectic basketball.

On the boys side, NSW proved the dominant state over the tournament to claim the titles in both age groups.

Girls 12 & Under

TeamVic for girls 12&under were represented by Boomers junior Zoe Vodden from our Under 14-2 team, with Leila DeVirgilio as an emergency for the team.

This team had a stellar week, breezing through the pool games to easily claim top of the table. Into the semi finals, SA came to play and put up a much stronger effort, but the Vics prevailed 52 - 41 to claim a Championship final berth.

In the Championship game against Queensland, it was tight early as both teams sought to settle the early nerves. But the Vics slowly settled into their stride and built a comfortable lead that Queensland found too hard to close - in the end, TeamVic ran out comfortable winners 73 - 49.

A big congratulations to Zoe on her School Sport Australia Gold Medal.

Zoe (second from left) celebrates her win with Boomers team mates (with Leila on the left)

Girls 18 & Under

Bridget Mimmo (Under 18-1 girls) was a member of the TeamVic 12 & under girls in primary school days and six years later has returned to represent the senior Vic girls - that in itself is a fantastic achievement ! Bridget was joined in 2012 by Emily Simons (Big V Champ Women) and Tessa Ramsay (Big V Youth Women) as members of the Vic Metro team (this tournament also had a Vic Country team in the 18 girls), so the Boomers were well represented.

TeamVic Metro also had some easy wins early on, with a crunch pool game coming against last year's title holders NSW. But the girls played some strong ball to hold NSW off by 5 points and claim top of the table in the pool round.

In the semis, Vic Metro played a controlled game against Vic Country to claim a Championship berth, while in the other semi Queensland came from nowhere to upset the highly fancied NSW team by 3 points.

As they say in the classics, finals are a whole new ball game, and so it proved as Queensland launched out of the blocks in the final to stun the Vics with a 25 - 16 lead at quarter time. If TeamVic thought they could change the momentum into the second they were sadly mistaken, as the northerners continued to bomb the lights out and the Vics could not buy a basket. At half time, the Queensland lead was 44 - 24 and it looked all over for TeamVic.

But basketball is a funny game and the coach rolled the dice by putting the five players on the court he thought would best match Queensland's pace and leaving them on for pretty much the entire second half. And it proved a master stroke as TeamVic began to dominate the offensive boards to pressure the opposition and slowly work back into the game.

The Vics hit the lead for the first time in the game with 4 minutes to play, but Queensland refused to give up and the lead was still tied with a minute on the clock. But a massive trey from Bridget Mimmo bought the house down to restore a narrow Vic lead - Queensland managed another quick basket but through another minute of fouls and turnovers both ways the TeamVic girls hung on for a stunning 68 - 66 victory.

This game will be one to remember for all the TeamVic girls for a long time to come.

Congratulations to Bridget, Emily and Tessa for their Gold Medals at the SSA Nationals.

TeamVic Girls 18&Under Gold Medallists

Story: Boomers Media (and thanks to whoever took the pic of Zoe and friends)