The first day of Indigenous Nationals is basketball and is done and dusted at UOW with Australian Catholic University (ACU) taking over the University of Sydney (USYD)
A close score of 17-15 to ACU with USYD starting ahead and stronger but a quick comeback in the second half from ACU got them the first championship of the 2024 Indigenous Nationals.
The ACU basketball captain Zane Ratcliff said he is proud of his team and the effort they have put in.
“Proud of a lot of people for backing up pretty much every single game so I got give to my team … they pretty much carried the game, especially the girls,” he said.
History almost repeated itself, last year these two universities competed against one another but with different results than this year.
The USYD basketball captain Chelsea Rowley ACU got them this year.
“We beat them in one of the semi-finals last year … they got this one on us but it is what it is,” Ms Rowley said.
Ms Rowley said they did not get the results they hoped for but were proud of the team.
“We really wanted to win and a little bit heartbreaking at the end going down but I couldn’t be more proud of the team and how far we’ve come,” she said.
Netball is on today followed by touch football and volleyball for the next couple of days.