Live stream: Westfields girls out to make mark at 2023 Basketball Australia Schools Championships

‘We believe we’ll be up there with the best of them.’ The Sydney powerhouse certainly aren’t daunted by the step up to the elite level. Catch five days from the BA Schools Championships LIVE.

Westfields Sports High School has been building nicely for a Basketball Australia Schools Women’s Championship title run for the past few years.

And they are confident 2023 will be their time to strike.

The team contesting the women’s Championship division on the Gold Coast later this month is made up mostly of players who claimed the U20 division one title last year, and coach Mirinda Reed is excited to see them step up to the top level.

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“We’re absolutely going there with the expectation that we’re there to compete and play the best basketball possible,” Reed said.

“We know it’s not going to be an easy road, there’s a lot of good teams there, but we have the belief that we’ll be up there with the best of them.”

It’s a team that matches up nicely with the big guns, with Westfields boasting a line-up who have all played together for a long time, something Reed believes is a massive advantage.

“We’ve got Dylan Alexander, who just signed her letter of intent with St Mary’s (a division one college in America), and she’s been key for us,” Reed said.

The successful Westfields team from 2022.

“We’ve also got three girls currently playing in the Pacific Games for Samoa - Azaleah Oloapu, Sienna Tutani and Kira-May Filemu, so they’re coming straight from that to the tournament.

“Makayla (Minshall) comes into it off the back of a massive season for her in the youth league.”

“So we’ve got some really good players and when they play together, it’s a pretty formidable group.”

The team also features two sets of siblings, with Kira-May and Leilani Filemu together again while Makayla Minshall’s younger sister, Mia, comes into the team.

“It has ups and downs, of course, typical siblings,” Reed said on working with the sisters.

“But we’re all there for the same cause, so they put that aside.”

Heading into the Championship division, Reed said there will be no easy games.

“Obviously, Lake Ginninderra is going to be a really tough team because they bring in players from the Centre of Excellence,” she said.

“Rowville is always really strong, and South Australia is up-and-coming, they just won the U18 nationals and are a great shooting team.

“So I think it’ll be a tough week, but my girls are up to the challenge.”

Check out the Championship teams below.