Dallas leads Aussies to Gold in India

By Aiden Box

BENA’S own Dallas Loughridge has captained the Australian Gems Under 18 team to its first ever Asia Cup title in India recently. 

Going up against powerhouse China in the Grand Final, Loughridge had her best game of the tournament, dropping 17 points and eight assists to help the girls in green and gold clinch the title. 

The Gems win ends a miraculous run from China, who had claimed the previous five Asia Cup crowns leading into the 2022 tournament. 

The Australian captain was sensational throughout the tournament playing at point guard and leading the Aussie girls to a blistering start, sweeping the group stage with three convincing wins. 

Those wins came against the hosts India, familiar foes New Zealand (both by 67 points) and Korea (by 30 points). 

In an interview with the Sentinel-Times recently, the Gems captain expressed her feelings on the historic win and what it meant to her. 

“We knew going into the tournament that Australia hadn’t won it before and China were the reigning champions, so we thought going into the Grand Final we had something to prove, we definitely had hunger in our bellies,” she said. 

“It was an amazing feeling (to win), after the gold medal game a lot of the fans came on to the court for photos so that was pretty cool.”

Having fulfilled her lifelong dream of pulling on the green and gold, Loughridge sounded off on the privilege of leading her nation on the world stage. 

“I’ve always dreamed of playing for Australia and being able to be captain is definitely an honour,” she said. 

However, the weight of the captaincy and the championship run didn’t come without its challenges and the young point guard explained how they shaped her leadership.

“It was definitely different basketball-wise and especially because India as a country is so different to Australia, we had to watch what we eat and couldn’t drink the tap water so that was a bit tricky,” she said. 

“I had to make sure that I was there for the team even if I was feeling tired or good, or bad I had to be there for the team and make sure I drove the energy, so the rest of the group stayed up and ready for the games and training,” she said. 

The Gems went undefeated for the tournament, their closest contest was the nine-point Semi-Final win over Chinese Taipei Gems centre Isla Juffermans claimed the tournament MVP after averaging a double-double for the tournament. 

Having begun her basketball career at Poowong, Loughridge soon found herself on the world stage.

“It was really good to play against the Asian countries because their style of basketball is completely different,” she said. 

“Putting in all the hard work and then seeing the results showing from all that hard work was great.” 

The captain’s hard work continues to pay off, as she was recently added to the Southside Fliers roster for the upcoming WNBL season, another amazing achievement. 

The Asia Cup title granted Australia qualification for next year’s Under 19 FIBA World Cup in Madrid, Spain and the Under 18s championship captain spoke on her personal and individual goals for the future. 

“Our goal will definitely be to win gold, that’ll be our mentality going into that tournament so just to start putting in hard work until then so we can put ourselves in the best spot possible to win,” she said. 

“(Personally) just focusing on now and the WNBL season that’s coming up, preparing myself for that to try and be in the best shape and I can be to set myself up to play well.” 

Loughridge will be in action for the Flyers, when they kick off their season when they host Adelaide at the State Basketball Centre on November 5, tipping off at 7pm.