Ward, 15, stars in historic titles win

T O WNS V I L L E y o u n g s t e r Chailee Ward has put herself on the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence’s radar after her star displays helped guide Queensland North to history at the under- 16 national titles.

The 15- year- old point guard, already earmarked as a star of the future, averaged 16.1 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists in helping Queensland North to its first- ever medal at the tournament.

Also featuring fellow Townsville products Shaylee Browning, Ainslie Minogue, Bree Stephens, Kaitlin Henaway and Lauren Andrews, Queensland North secured bronze after dispatching NSW Metro 73- 32 on the Sunshine Coast yesterday.

Ward is also a shot at securing Townsville Fire’s final development player spot if she doesn’t secure a Centre of Excellence place, which is based at Canberra’s Australian Institute of Sport.

“Claudia ( Brassard, Fire coach) has flown down here and we were just talking about ( how) she’s on the radar for them,” Queensland coach Mike St- Maurice said.

“But possibly before that happens, the Centre of Excellence may be knocking on her door and asking her to come down …. We don’t often have kids go down there ( at the COE). Nadeen Payne went about 10 years ago, the Froling girls ( Keely and Alicia) maybe five or six years ago.

“We set the goal early on saying this is a medal potential group, but we had to work for it.”

Ward said she was pleased with her performance and always had belief the squad would stand on the podium.

“We were confident because we put in a lot of hard work to get there,” she said.

“I was pretty happy with how I played.”

Meanwhile, Townsville’s division one side is through to today’s gold medal clash against Cairns Marlins at the Queensland under- 14 titles at Townsville Basketball Centre.

After suffering their only loss in five preliminary matches to Brisbane Capitals 43- 34 yesterday, the Heat won their semi final against North Gold Coast Seahhawks 56- 52.

The gold medal match tips off today at 1.30pm.