28 Jul NBWL Round 4 Wrap
The race to the Finals is heating up with four of the teams chasing down a berth splitting their games this weekend.
The Red Dust Heelers took a 2-1 advantage over the Manly Wheel Eagles while the Southern Districts Spartan took a game off the Perth Wheelcats to keep their post-season hopes alive.
The Wheel Eagles and Heelers fought out three “nail biters” with the Heelers winning Game 1 68-64 with Game 2 going to overtime with the Heelers rolling out 68-63 win. The Wheel Eagles turned the tables on Sunday winning 62-58.
“All three games were nail biters, it wasn’t easy to coach,” said Manly coach Rohan Foy.
“We tried a different line up today with some more speed on the court, it was definitely the difference. Our completion was also a lot better today.”
Manly were boosted by the return of Bill Latham from a hand injury with the Aussie Roller scoring 23.7 points and 17 rebounds per game for the weekend.
“It was great to see Bill back on the court, he brings great leadership and experience. We’ve struggled to capitalise in the paint this season, having Bill back really changed that.
It forced their defence to work harder on both sides of the court.”
Sabri Bedzeti led the way for Red Dust averaging 20.3 points and 11 rebounds for the weekend. The Heelers move to a 6-3 record but face a stern test in the remaining three rounds against Perth, Darwin and Wollongong.
For Manly the narrow losses may come back to haunt them as they look to return to Finals which they will host.
“Saturday night’s game was the one to win, we looked confident in the second and third but really struggled to finish. Red Dust were a very well drilled team, but we seemed to beat ourselves with turnovers and missed shots.”
“It was definitely ours to win and we didn’t capitalise on the opportunity. It will definitely haunt us if we don’t make finals.”
Out in the west, Perth and the Southern Districts Spartans also had a hotly contested series with the home side winning Game 1, 85-64. Scores were locked at 44 all with 6:38 remaining in the third quarter before the Wheelcats went on a 18-4 run to close out the period and set up the win.
Tom McHugh finished with 37 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists on 71.3% shooting.
In Game 2 the Spartans made the adjustment and were the side to make their move in the third quarter. Southern Districts led 31-28 at half time but by three quarter time led 51-42 and managed to hold back a late surge by the Wheelcats to win 61-57.
The Wheelcats responded in Game 3, getting out to a 25-11 first lead. The Spartans worked their way back into the game in the second half but Perth held on to win 78-71.
In three short weeks the Darwin Salties have risen to the top of the NWBL ladder after putting the Southern Districts Titans to the sword across three games in Darwin. The defending champions won by an average margin of 52 against the competition newcomers.
On Friday the Salties raced to a 13-0 start with Luis Edwardo Jasso, Jaylen Brown, Tom O’Neil-Thorne and CJ McCarthy-Grogan all getting on the scoreboard early. Jordan Williams got the Titans first points midway through the first quarter which sparked a 7-2 mini run by the visitors but by the end of the quarter the score read 23 to 9 in favour of the home side.
Things got much worse in the second as Darwin limited the Titans to just 2 points while putting on 25 of their own. With the game well in hand Tracy York ensured her bench saw minutes as well with O’Neil-Thorne the only player to play over 30 minutes.
Jaylen Brown finished with a triple double with 32 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists along with 6 steals.
The Titans will take heart from the improvement shown across the weekend with the young side going from a 66 point loss on Friday to a 43 loss on Sunday.