GREENSWARD Academy’s under-14 girls basketball team are officially the third best in the country.

The squad travelled to the national finals day in Nottingham where the four best schools from across the country did battle for national honours.

After suffering a heart-breaking defeat in their semi-final to eventual champions, the Greig City Academy, the girls showed great character to pick themselves up and win the play-off for third place against Aylesbury.

Academy principal Debbie Stokes, who travelled up to watch the team, said: “They are a great group of girls dedicated to their sport and deserved to do well. It was nice to see the support from so many of the parents as well. Such achievements do not come about without the hard work of many people. From the staff and coaches who support and train the teams giving up hours of after school time, to the parents who support and ensure they are in the right place at the right time and, of course, to the students who train so hard.

“A great weekend was had by all, they made me feel very proud of them and the academy as a whole.”

The Greensward team that travelled to Nottingham consisted of captain Emily Gaskin, Zoe Willis, Amber Evans, Georgia-Blue Logan, Summer Osborne, Shereen Raouf, Chelsea Locke, Lauren Kinch, Ria Toovey, Rhian Simpson, Libby Rudd and Lauren Allen.

The semi-final against the Greig City Academy went to the wire after the girls were trailing in the first and second quarters by as much as 11 points. In the third and fourth quarters, the girls made a comeback and eventually went up by four points with three minutes to play.

That lead was whittled down to just one point going into the last minute and with clock ticking down, a Greig City player drove to the basket and was fouled. The player kept her cool after not making any of her previous foul shots during the game to score both shots to hand her side victory and break the Greensward girls’ hearts.

In the play-off against Aylesbury, the team picked themselves up and started well, leading 43-22 at half time. The girls continued to play some excellent basketball on both offense and defence and won the game 87-44.