Silver Still Shines For Sapphires

Illawarra Mercury

Thursday July 12, 2007

By TIM KEEBLE

SHE is a basketball world championships silver medallist and has the scars to prove it.

Well maybe not the scars, but the big, dark bruise on Australian Sapphires star Renae Camino's chin was worth the pain.

"The Americans couldn't have played much better in the final," Camino said while relaxing at her Balgownie home yesterday with her family.

"Their bigs (players) were awesome. They were very aggressive and really got after us physically and I took a nice elbow to the chin at one stage."

After finishing seventh at the previous world titles, the Sapphires defied the odds to reach Sunday's final against the US in Russia.

Despite going down 96-73 to the tournament favourites, Camino said the Australians had regained the respect of rivals.

"We had to do it the hard way because our pool was a lot tougher than other pools. Our coach (Gary Fox) called it the draw from hell," the former Keira High standout said.

"We were pretty much written off before the tournament, so to beat France by seven in the semi-final and get as far as we did was pretty pleasing.

"Our strength was probably our depth because different people stepped up at different times. Obviously you're always disappointed when you get so close to the gold medal and you don't win it, but we had a good group and it was a good way for us to finish off our junior careers."

Camino was arguably her team's most valuable player, finishing second in scoring (15.8 points per game on 46 per cent shooting) behind Jenny O'Hea (16.8). She was among the tournament's top five scorers and also averaged 4.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals.

In the final she battled her way to 12 points and five rebounds in the face of suffocating defence.

Australia's result ensured they retained their world number two ranking behind the Americans.

"It is a great accomplishment for the girls and the future of Australian basketball," Fox said.

"These girls deserve a lot of accolades for the things they have done. They are a good team and they probably played above what they can. A lot of people thought they could not do this. What these girls did through the preliminary, pool and final matches and against the teams we played, to do this is brilliant."

After the constant playing, training and travelling over the past 12 months, Camino plans on "chilling at home and doing absolutely nothing for three weeks".

The former Illawarra junior basketball star will head to Adelaide to start pre-season training with the Adelaide Lightning.

Camino was drafted by the Houston Comets in the WNBA last year and will join the club in 2008.

© 2007 Illawarra Mercury

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