Playing at Bathurst, the U-12s, despite losing all the pool games, were competitive in most of the matches, but lack of experience, height and court time against more experienced opposition, was a telling factor in all their losses.

The U14s headed to Newcastle for their competition, again without any success, however all pool games were close with the Lakers in a winning position at various times in their encounter against teams that have been training and playing for several months. Only five to eleven points separated the Lakers from their opponents in all the games.

The U-16s faced a similar fate in their six pool matches at Maitland, the opposition teams in division 3 showing advanced shooting and defensive skills. The aggressive offence from their opponents was also a shock to the less experienced Lakers defence, who had worked hard in every game, not always with success, on this aspect of their game.

Coach Brooke Colley said the under 16s team remained composed when faced with challenges.

"The boys knew going in they were going to be up against tough competition who would be better prepared, while we had limited preparation," she said.

"They improved significantly over the weekend, they improved their intensity and ability to physically match up against the opposition."

Ms Colley said the biggest bonus of the competition was the team were able to see what was possible.

"They could see what they need to do to get to that next level. Gilgandra, which is a smaller town than Mudgee, ended up winning the division three final which shows a small country town can compete against bigger centres, it's just that we need to do a little bit more preparation."

Gilgandra were the eventual winners of Division 3 defeating Newcastle White 49-26 (who beat Mudgee 57-25 and Dubbo in double extra time for a place in the final).