Opals score a giant gem

By Stuart Teather
ELIZABETH Cambage was playing basketball in Milan, Italy, when she received the news that changed her life.
The former Dandenong junior got a call from a friend telling her she had made the Australian Opals squad for 2009.
The 203cm centre will suit up alongside international stars like Lauren Jackson, Penny Taylor, Tully Bevilaqua and Holly Grima – the best of the best in Australian basketball.
At just 17, Cambage is the baby of the squad and only made her Women’s National Basketball League debut, for Dandenong, at the end of 2007.
Since then, she has played a full season with the AIS in the WNBL and toured France and Italy with her club, playing against some of Europe’s powerhouse teams.
Perhaps the most striking thing about Cambage is that despite all her success, she is an ordinary teenage girl -modest, unassuming and slightly star-struck.
“It’s every girl’s dream come true,” she said. “Playing against women with so much experience and knowledge of the game.
“I’m not even 18 yet, I try not to think about it as a massive, massive thing at the moment, I’m just trying to get through every day at the AIS.”
Asked who she was most excited about playing with, Cambage struggled to name just one.
“Penny Taylor, Lauren Jackson, all the girls in the squad, they’re really nice,” she said.
The young star said she was ‘really shocked’ when she found out about the selection, but said discussions with Opals coach Carrie Graf had given her some indication it was coming.
“I had a bit of an idea, I’d been talking with Carrie Graf about things needed to improve, she was really helping me with my game. It’s a really big honour,” she said.
She is one of three new players to be added to the Opals squad as the side begins to take shape for the 2012 London Olympics.
Coach Carrie Graf said the next six months would be a really exciting time for her as a coach to get her teeth into the Opals program.
“It will also be exciting to really see who the developing Opals players are and whether they can push their way into the team for 2010 (World Championships) and 2012,” she said. Locals may remember Cambage from her junior days at Dandenong, but more likely will remember the destruction she wrought on the club in the penultimate round of the WNBL season in February, when the AIS knocked over the Rangers 79-74.
Cambage had 27 points and five rebounds, going toe-to-toe with Rangers import Jenni Benningfield in the paint.
“I think it was just Jenni Benningfield and I were just going goal for goal, she had 30 points or something crazy like that. We were just too strong on the day to stop, I guess,” she said.
The 203cm centre had a breakout season in 2008-09, playing 16 games and averaging 14.6 points and almost seven rebounds.
With all her success, Cambage has had to reassess her goals that now include representing her country.
“We’ve all been asked to sit down and make goals, but I could still be at the AIS next season so I’ve got no idea what’s happening,” she said.
“There’s the World Championships next year, so I’m hoping to train well and hopefully get close to making that would be amazing.”