CJ Kalsi ready to lead Bathurst High School's basketball side at the Astley Cup

Kalsi will look to put his experience to use as he leads the Bathurst basketball side for their upcoming Astley Cup game against Orange High School this Thursday at the Bathurst Indoor Sports Stadium.

There will be many eyes focused on the match since it's the opening event of the Bathurst-Orange tie.

But Kalsi is used to the high pressure moments.

He hit the buzzer beating shot that led to Bathurst's 30-all draw with Orange in last year's Astley Cup meeting.

Bathurst co-incidentally drew both of their basketball games in last year's Astley Cup.

In the clash against Dubbo they had to settle for a 34-all result.

Those deadlocked results have the team full of desire to make it two wins from two games this time around.

Kalsi said it's a thrill to be a part of such an important edition of the cup.

"I've been in the team for three years now. It's been an exhilarating experience and I'm really excited for the 100^th year of the Astley Cup

"It's not been the greatest of times recently in Basketball for Bathurst but I think we have a great chance this year. We've got a new team this year and I think we'll go well.

"Basketball is the most hype sport, in my opinion. Everyone gets around it and everyone goes crazy. It's really fun to experience."

Bathurst's other recent years of basketball action has seen them trade wins and losses each year.

In 2021 the team had a great 54-32 win over Orange but went down 38-26 to Dubbo.

Another thriller unfolded in 2019 when Dubbo edged out the Bathurst boys 34-33 but they got on the right side of a big 61-36 success against Orange.

Thursday's match gets underway from 9.45am.

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.